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THE LOCAL CHURCH 


Bee AG AG ACR 
Church Efficiency Books 


The Local Church. Its Present and Future. 


A Study based of conditions in Many 
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% 
UN 17 1926 


e 
Gaica,. sew 


The Local ane 


Its Present and Future 


Lb ar ut aay 
FREDERICK A“AGAR 


Author of “‘The Competent Church,” “Church 
cers,” etc. 


New York CHICAGO 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 


Copyright, Mcmxxvi, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY > 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Preface 


It is not the purpose of this volume to attack the church 
of today, but rather to examine it fearlessly and impar- 
tially in an attempt to promote its cause and its future, and 
help it to meet the criticisms of its enemies. 

In order to avoid some forms of censure that would 
result if the discussion were wholly critical, constructive 
methods are constantly kept before the mind of the reader. 

The study that the volume contains must, therefore, 
stand or fall upon its own merits rather than upon any 
position or reputation that the writer may possess. » 

Suffice it to say, that the author is wholly in sympathy 
with what is generally termed Christianity, and that the 
Church, both Universal and Local, is to him an object of 
veneration and pride. His only desire is that its work 
may be advanced to the utmost. 

The book aims to present a true picture of present-day, 
general conditions. Although churches differ very widely 
in different localities, and there are many types of local 
churches, every church will find that this is a true picture, 
in certain particulars, of its institution. 

That some earnest Christians will disagree with the 
author’s presentation, is a foregone conclusion, but, if the 
disagreement leads either the reader or the author to come 
to a new and correct understanding of the church and its 
mission, the Cause will be helped. Some repetition has 
been indulged in for the sake of emphasis. 

5 


6 PREFACE 


Questions covering each chapter will be found at the 
end of the volume. This feature may add to the value 
of the book when used for the basis of a study class, 

The one great desire of the writer is to further the aims 
and purposes of the Founder and Head of the Church, for 
he believes this to be his mission in the world of today. 

BAL Ag 
New York City. 


Contents 


I 
JusTIFYING CONTINUANCE 
II 
THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 
III 
THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH . 
IV 
Meme EM ISTE, hove Kure dr, Wa Se Shar, 
V 
EN AN CEG Wr Like ie em ung 
VI 


THE OBJECTIVES OF Its PROGRAM 


VII 
BUILDING THE FuTURE PROGRAM . 


APPENDIX 
QuEsTIOoNs RELATING To EACH CHAPTER 


. 16 


. 39 


. 48 


. 63 





I 
JUSTIFYING CONTINUANCE 


A Frank Question—A question concerning the Church 
is being constantly asked today. It is this, “ Is the Church 
justified by its organization and character in continuing 
to fill its recognized place of unique power in the world?” 

The question ought to be faced frankly, because, unless 
it is faced and answered, the local church organizations 
will continue to confront more and more difficulties and 
loss of prestige. Armed with facts based upon careful 
scrutiny and candid recognition of success or failure, it 
will continue to grow in usefulness. It is proposed, there- 
fore, to review the whole question in this volume from a 
constructive viewpoint. 

First of all, let us look at the qualities and powers that 
would justify the claim of any local church to a position 
of authority in its community, and constitute its claim to 
the whole-hearted support of its membership. 
Spirituality—Perhaps the first justification for the con- 
tinuation of any local church lies in its spirituality. Spiri- 
tuality is not to be thought of as something unreal or 
intangible, but as a factor in any common sense every- 


day life. It is nothing more nor less than the proper rela- | PA 


tionship of things or people to the plans and purposes) 
of God in Jesus Christ. Spirituality is not a matter of! 
dogma or phrase-making, but it is essentially a matter of 
living rightly with God through faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. That person is spiritual, therefore, whose life is 
lived in harmony with God through a faith in Jesus Christ. 
The main and, therefore, the great purpose of the local 


9 


10 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


church is to be a fountain of spiritual energies and 
emanations. In this field it has no rival. There is no 
other organization or institution, unless it be a subsidiary 
of the Church, which has as its sole purpose, the relating 
of people through right living, with the Lord and Saviour, 
Jesus Christ. Mankind unceasingly needs spiritual life 
and spiritual power. ‘Through the Church, this demand 
can be met by the fellowship of Christians, the preached 
Word, the prayer life, unselfish ministries to people in 
need, and the dynamic presence of the spirit of God. 
The Contrasts—The world outside the Church is full of 
a gaiety called pleasure, but which brings pain and anguish 
in its train. When the church-members are truly spiri- 
tual, they know how to play and laugh so as to enjoy life 
without destroying its bloom. ‘The world outside may be 
full of rivalries and business importunities which leave 
the mind weary and the body weak, but the Church, if true 
to its purpose, will give that spiritual tonic which brings ~ 
back such balance and poise that God is honored in all 
business affairs, and life is ennobled by victory. 

The world outside may be a place where the gaunt 
spectre of sin and sickness, death and the grave, is con- 
stantly flaunting its grim victories, but in the Church, the 
Conqueror of sin can always be found, a Saviour and 
Lord who overcomes evil in the lives of those who walk 
with Him. He takes away the mystery of death and re- 
moves the shadows of the grave for all who are His. The 
world outside is frankly seeking its own ends and is full 
of hatreds and jealousies, but wherever the church is true 
to the principles and practices of the Lord and Master, all 
these are banished and there is built up a great brother- 
hood in Christ that knows no race nor color and whose 
guiding and eternal principle is the abiding love of the 
Saviour. 

Why Go To Church?—It follows that people will 
find in the church, the experienced Word of Truth, the 
usable prayer spirit, the unselfish service and the joy of 


JUSTIFYING CONTINUANCE 11 


the Lord. Upon these dynamic things spiritual power is 
built and maintained. People go to church for spiritual 
uplift, hence the future of the church depends upon its 
possession of and ministry in things spiritual. Coming 
from God, they can only be found by earnestly seeking 
after Him. People go to the theater because they wish to 
be amused; they go to a restaurant for food; thus in all 
the needs and desires of life, there is a place where people 
expect to find what they are after. In just as definite a 
way, people go to church because the spiritual urge of 
their lives demands sustenance and help. Woe be to the 
church that is asked for bread and proffers a stone! 
Love and Fellowship—Continuance of any local church 
is justified again by a brotherly love and Christian fel- 
lowship. A church that exemplifies love and fellowship 
justifies its maintenance. No other group or institu- 
tion is constituted solely to produce and maintain a 
genuine brotherly love and practical unselfish fellowship. 
“How those Christians love one another” was the com- 
ment made concerning the Early Church. It should still 
remain one of the distinguishing and notable character- 
istics of the true Church of today. Ata recent gathering 
of members in a local church, there were present at 
that meeting members who had come into the fellowship 
of that church from nineteen states and eleven. foreign 
countries, with a consequent variety of personalities and 
habits of procedure. Yet under the spirit of Christ, excel- 
lent harmony, spiritual peace, and good fellowship ruled 
in every heart. 
Internationalism—The right to future as well as present 
maintenance is further demonstrated by a Christian inter- 
nationalism which finds expression in a missionary pas- 
sion and program. ‘The world purpose of Christ in 
seeking to save all peoples, when launched and worthily 
carried out by any local church, is splendid justification 
for future maintenance. 

No other group or institution has such a world program 


12 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


based upon unstinted giving of self, to save for time and 
eternity known, unknown, and alien races of people. It is’ 
this missionary passion that creates in the souls of the 
membership, the spirit of Christian adventure, of sacri- 
ficial service, of untiring devotion, of dependence upon the 
Unseen One, and of loving fellowship that characterized 
the Saviour. He holds out the assurance of conquered 
sin and uplifted men and women. In His presence and 
with His help, spiritual life is experimentally true. There 
is ample justification for the continuance and growth of 
those local churches that manifest a missionary spirit by a 
world participation in Christian service. The production 
of money without a corresponding measure of personal 
missionary enlistment will not suffice. 

Self-Giving—The right of any local church to continued 
existence gains further proof from the manifestations of 
self-giving without any expectation of return in kind. As 
Christ gave Himself, the just for the unjust, so the spiri- 
tually minded church-member will follow the example of 
his Lord by giving of all the powers and possessions that. 
belong to his life without thought of return. In like man- 
ner the church of which he is a member will practise self-~ 
giving. There is no other group or institution in this 
world whose chief aim and purpose is to give and continue 
to give the treasures of life without expectation of ma- 
terial return. Such, however, is the real purpose of a true 
local church, and in its spiritual giving is found an added 
reason why the church should be maintained. 

Its Justification—The spiritual purpose of the Church 
contrasted with the materialism of the world, its love and 
fellowship contrasted with the hates and fears of the 
world, its internationalism with its peace and Christian 
love in contrast with wars and national or group greed, 
and finally its unselfish self-giving contrasted with the 
urge of self-aggressiveness—it is in such contrasts of life 
as these that the local church finds its justification for 
future as well as present usefulness and growth. Just in 


JUSTIFYING CONTINUANCE Lomas 


so far as the local church exhibits these characteristics, 
and produces lives illumined with the personality of Jesus, 
is there justification for its existence. 
God Needs Us—God needs us. Those words tell a most 
wonderful truth. The omnipotent God and owner of all 
life and things has so planned His affairs that Christian 
people are essential to His program. This fact carries 
with it one of the most stupendous opportunities belong- 
ing to mankind. In the presence of this opportunity, all 
believers stand today to give account of their stewardship. 
To fail God now is to thwart the divine purposes. For 
the sake of the One who loved us, as well as for the sake 
of those who profess to love Him “because He first 
loved,” the purposes of God in this world of today and 
tomorrow must surely be the first and great objective 
of our life and its stewardship. By its educational pro- 
gram, its missionary outlook, and its nurture of the spiri- 
tual life, the local church helps the individual to more 
worthily cooOperate with God. That is splendid justifica- 
tion for the continuance of the local group. 
Needed Today—God needs us today. It is said with 
all humility and yet with a sense of the great honor be- 
stowed upon all by the great and omnipotent Creator. 
Surely no one will lightly pass by the opportunity to serve 
Him whom the angels of heaven would gladly honor. The 
chance to serve is ours now. Reverently we say that God 
has limited Himself to the plan which demands our par- 
ticipation. If we fill the need and meet the opportunity 
we shall preserve the honor as well as the plan of God. 
Our sense of honor demands that we fulfill our steward- 
ship to the full extent of our powers, and that we do it 
without delay. . 
_If we should fail when God needs us and depends upon 
us, then someone else will serve God to fulfill His plans 
and purposes, for His purposes cannot fail. But those 
who fail God will be like the steward of old who took his 
talent and hid it in a napkin and buried it in the ground. 


14 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


The failure will be fraught with tremendous consequences © 
to those who have professed to love God enough to help 
Him in His need, and have then belied their profession by 
refusing to keep faith with Him. We will help Him now, 
for tomorrow is uncertain and the needs of today must be 
met today. Best of all, we will help Him because of the 
urge of a great and abiding love for Him and His. 
Therein is found the final justification for any local church 
that it aids in producing God’s helpers. | 
Common-sense Idealism—It is often said that the 
Christian Church is foolish in its idealism, but it must be 
remembered that an ideal is a goal to be reached, and 
becomes a reality only when the idealist strives to attain it. 
Ideals are odd because they only work when the idealist 
works them. 

The Person of Christ—Not in its great and magnificent 
edifices, its splendid organs and choirs, its stately rituals 
and worldly pomp does the local church find justification 
for continued existence. The world outside the churches 
has splendid buildings, marvellous organs and massed. 
singers, and the pomp and vainglory of many a procession 
and ritual. Not in its list of members, among whom are 
numbered many of the world’s great men and women, does 
the local church find its justification. The outside world 
has such men and women in equal or greater numbers. 
The local church finds its real justification in the cross of 
Christ, an emblem of shame and death. The real dynamic 
for continuation and growth of the church is found in the 
person and personality of the Man of Sorrows, who had 
not where to lay His head, and who was despised and re- 
jected of men, but who loved, lived, and died that mankind 
might be saved from sin and shame. When any church 
brings mankind into spiritual apprehension and common 
sense living relationships with the Christ, it has found its 
justification for being and continuing. The one and only 
real hope for world brotherhood, for a fellowship regard- 
less of human limitations of class, creed or wealth is found 


JUSTIFYING CONTINUANCE 15 


in the Person of Christ and just in so far as any church 
lives and communicates these attributes of His, it has 
found its highest justification for being and continuing. 
The Church must be spiritual like the Christ. It must 
justify itself by bearing its own cross as Christ bore His. 

How far short of the mark the average local church 
falls in reaching these ideals that should justify its con- 
tinuance, we shall candidly seek to discover and set forth 
without evasion or excuse. In like manner, its successes 
in reaching them will be pointed out. It is to be hoped 
that some things of practical value may be discussed which 
will enable the institution to work out its ideals and to 
demonstrate plainly that in seeking God it seeks the high- 
est and best and that it is willing to pay a real price to 
attain Him. 


II 
THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 


The Church Universal—It is fascinating to consider 
the strength of the Church Universal. No matter to what 
branch of it an individual may belong, there comes a de- 
lightful sense of being part of a tremendous multitude 
which has influenced, and will continue to influence, the 
immortal souls of countless throngs. There is in every 
human heart a desire to be more than mortal, and the 
Church Universal with its divine origin and its spiritual 
maintenance visualizes the divine and the eternal to every 
true Christian. Therein lies its fundamental strength. 
It is a Church composed of the peoples of every age, 
nation, clime and condition, and at once and completely 


envelops the whole range of human brotherhood and > 


internationalism. 

In the midst of wars and strife, the Church assumes a 
new and peculiar responsibility in teaching love, the guid- 
ing principle of life, as a counter and foil for racial 
hatreds. Therein again lies the strength of the Church 
Universal. 

Although tangible in its component parts called local 
churches, yet to many people it is often intangible and 
mystic because of its divine origin and maintenance. This 
very mysticism is a contributing factor to the strength of 
the Church through its appeal to the spiritual as against 
the gross and material appeal of the world. 

The Person of Christ—Perhaps the chief element in the 
strength of the Church Universal lies in the person and 
life of its founder and chief exponent, our Lord and 
Saviour, Jesus Christ. His origin, sinless life, un- 


16 


THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 17 


paralleled work, priceless sacrifice and painful death, His 
victory over the grave, followed by His exaltation again 
to the Father’s presence, constitute the greatest fountain- 
head of power which the Church has now or ever has had 
since its inception. It is in the person of Christ and 
through the ever present witness of His Spirit that the 
power of the Church Universal will remain. It will con- 
tinue to grow in power and influence under the dynamic 
of His continued presence. The Church Universal will 
grow regardless of what may happen to the local churches. 

However fascinating’ such a consideration of the 
sources of strength of the Church Universal may be, we 
must leave unwritten the major part of what might be 
said about it while we pass on to a consideration of the 
strength and success of the local churches. 
W hat Constitutes Success?—What do thinking church- 
members count as constituting a successful church? Cer- 
tainly, to insure success, it is not essential to procure a 
crowd to hear the preaching of a popular minister. It is 
not adding a host of mere names to the membership rolls 
of the church. It is not to raise so much money that the 
church is always out of debt. It is not to be known as a 
church where there exists nothing but peace. It is not to 
be the center of publicity stunts that describe feats of 
sensational pieces of work or entertainment for the de- 
lectation of an outside public. It is not to possess the 
handsomest church edifice and the finest choir in the com- 
munity. Some, or all of these things may be found in 
a successful church, but all of them without loving 
brotherly or sisterly spiritual ministries are but empty 
shells and hollow mockeries. | 

A successful church is one where the inner spiritual life 
of pastor and people constantly enables them to reveal 
their Christian love. Then the whole world about them 
cannot withstand the effects of their loving persistent 
self-sacrificing ministries, That is success. It will nearly 
always be accompanied by several of the other effects, 


18 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


but even if none of them are present, the church that loves 
and ministers is an unqualified success. 

Love is seldom passive; it is mainly dynamic and self- 
spending. Personal Christianity and organized Christian- 
ity must both be remembered as factors in the strength or 
weakness of any and every local church. Some strong 
Christian characters are entirely unused by local church 
organizations. ‘The very fact that they are strong char- 
acters causes some local bodies to let them remain unused. 
The prevalence of the office-holding habit, when one indi- 
vidual holds two or more offices to the exclusion of other 
people who might be appointed to fill one of the two, 
makes it impossible for the organized group to profit by 
the labors of some strong Christian characters. On the 
other hand, the organized forces of Christianity are often 
hampered by the fact that their forces are without the 
presence and participation of some who proclaim them- 
selves adherents of Christ but will not link themselves up 
with His Church. The personal life of individual Chris- - 
tians and the organized forces of the Church must both 
alike learn to use and be used by the other. 

The Spirit of Truth—The chief source of power and 
present strength of any local church is in its possession 
and use of the personal attributes and powers derived 
from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be a 
substitute for Christlike living ; not even the Word of God, 
because its great purpose is simply to bring people to the 
knowledge of Jesus Christ. If, therefore, the revelation 
of God is real in the life of the believer, it creates a desire 
to live like the One revealed. A church reveals this char- 
acteristic through the lives of its members. 

The Law of Love—A further cause of strength and suc- 
cess is found in the communion of saints while they wor- 
ship, work, witness and give to promote a Christian 
brotherhood, with the sole motive of Christian self-giving. 
The Church differs from all other organizations in its 
purpose to fulfill the law of love through the operation of 


THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 19 


a spiritually-minded brotherhood. Two examples will 
illustrate this self-giving: 

There is a church that surveyed its community to dis- 
cover how many people were living “shut-in” lives. 
They found seventy-four individuals whose lives were 
passed within the four walls of a building, and many of 
them lived all their time within the four walls of one 
room. Too often it was a cheerless, badly lighted room. 
Using the children with their happy faces and merry 
voices, their songs and atmosphere of play, the church 
put into the lives of those shut-ins a new hope and cheer. 
There is revealed here the latent possibilities of a ministry 
for any and every church that is willing to serve in love 
and without the prospect of any material return in added 
membership or money. Then, too, the value of such work 
was revealed in the reactions that came into. the lives of 
the children who were taught by experience to be thought- 
ful and helpful for others. Such a church as the one 
initiating this or similar service, needs no further justifica- 
tion for its continuation beyond the very real Christian 
service it is rendering. 

A girl came out of a bedraggled, slatternly home with 
its discouraged, beaten mother and drunken father, and 
joined a class in the Bible School. Here she found a 
teacher sent of God and other girls who helped her to find 
herself in spite of all her home handicaps. Soon she was 
converted and joined the church, and her character devel- 
oped to the place where a worthwhile man loved her and 
was loved in return. 

When it came time for the wedding, it was impossible 
to have it in the home, for the dissipated father might 
come back at any time and the mother was unable to stem 
the tide of her discouragement even under such circum- 
stances. So the minister and church-members proposed 
to use the homelike atmosphere of the church parlors and 
the house of God became, in the life of that girl, not only 
a place of worship, but a household of loving friends 


20 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


where the joy of good living and love could find a start. 
Such an atmosphere justifies any local church in main- 
taining itself in any community. Just in proportion as a 
local church exemplifies this spirit, it has strength and 
influence. 

The Minister—Again, the strength of the church is in 
part the result of the labors of its ministers. As a great 
group of earnest, loving, self-sacrificing men, there is no 
parallel to them in any other sphere of activity. Taken as 
a whole, they constitute an unfailing source of Christian 
example and Christlike living. Whether as pastor or mis- 
sionary, they have constantly pioneered for their cause in 
the strange and lonely, or crowded and needy places of 
the world’s frontiers. Oftentimes the banner of the Cross 
has opened the way into places where commerce could not 
have found a lodgment but for the presence and influence 
of the minister of the Gospel. 

It is true that conditions have changed and that the 
minister does not fill the same place in the life of the com-— 
munity which his predecessors did, but he still fills a 
unique and tremendously important place in the complex 
life of today. Wherever a really competent man realizes 
the possibilities of his ministry, his influence will increase, 
in spite of difficulties and imperfections within his own 
organization, and structural changes in the life to which 
his church must minister. A spiritual minister contributes 
much to the success of a church, and there are many of 
them today. 

Into All the World—Another source of strength in the 
life of the average local church is its internationalism, 
evidenced by its missionary program and local operations. 
The highest law of love bids us “ do good to all men,” and 
thus links those far away with those who cross our own 
doorsteps. ‘The consequent vision of world enlistment 
and practical brotherhood has an immense spiritual, 
psychological, and practical effect upon the hearts and 
lives of the membership, Many churches, today, dip 


THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 21 


deeply into the missionary needs of their community and 
fill a large place in world service. 
The Church Building—A further source of strength 
lies in the visible church edifice with its constant reminder 
to all who see it that the Gospel lives, and men and women 
and children are constantly being besought to desert sin 
and accept the Saviour. It is a demonstrated fact that 
the presence of a church provides safety and stability for 
commercial pursuits and for the maintenance of decent 
home life and family relations. 
Lay Leaders—One of the mainstays of the church is its 
splendid group of lay men and women. Usually the lead- 
ing lay spirits in the commercial, educational and social 
life of the community are members of the church. Jn so 
far as they live in the ligher realm of life, just so in- 
effaceably will they set their impress upon the life of 
the community. At the same time they can bring into the 
church, from other circles, methods that will make the 
church more successful. This is being done in many cases 
and the churches feel the result in the higher standard 
accorded them in the community. 
The Children—tThe children of the church need to be 
remembered as its future hope. Their potentiality along 
religious lines is immeasurable. Considering the possi- 
bilities offered by the more improved educational facilities 
which local churches are using, it would seem safe to 
prophesy that the children of today will become leaders 
of marked power and influence in the church of tomorrow. 
Today much is being done for the child by many churches. 
Perhaps there are few things in the world of today, 
outside of the home, that has more appeal to immature 
child life than has the church, and the reflex action of 
child interest in the local church constitutes one of the 
sources of its strength. Additions to church membership 
are largely from the children in the church schools. 
Destroy Sin Traps—Although feebly at times, yet often 
with power, churches have protested against the wrong 


22 ‘THE LOCAL CHURCH 


use of the Lord’s Day, the liquor traffic, and other sins 
that would tend to lower the standards of the community. 
Wherever that has been done with wisdom and with a 
program of reconstruction in mind, the strength of the 
church has been increased. ‘There is still power in a 
“voice crying in the wilderness, ‘ Prepare ye the way of 
the Lord, and make his paths plain.’” It is part of Chris- 
tianity to destroy the sin-traps just as Jesus drove out the 
money-changers from the Temple. 

Co-operation—This discussion of the strength of the 
local church would not be complete without an allusion to 
the growing spirit of co-operation between some of the 
various communions in the communities where heretofore 
unwise competition and often unchristian opposition ex- 
isted between churches of different sects. Elsewhere the 
lack of co-operation is emphasized. It is a source of 
increasing strength to all that many groups are learn- 
ing more and more to work side by side in Christian 
fellowship. 

Evangelism—Another promising source of strength is 
the increasing evidence that the local churches are giving 
serious attention to the matter of personal enlistment. 
Evangelistic meetings are taking on a quieter form and 
are followed by intensive efforts to train the new convert 
in a life of worship, service, witnessing and giving. 
Therefore, educational processes are being improved and 
enlarged, not as a substitute for evangelism, but as an 
adjunct to it. 

A Progressive Attitude—The churches of today are 
generally awake to the problems of the immediate future. 
While their well known spirit of conservatism has not 
been entirely banished, and a reactionary or traditional 
spirit is still found to some extent, the churches of today 
are doing much that is worth while to prepare for a bigger 
and better local church of tomorrow. They are taking on 
a progressive attitude toward new and superior methods 
of organization and enlistment. The spirit of Christian 


THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 23 


adventure, wherever found, is of genuine worth in esti- 
mating the success of a church. 

A Participating Membership—In the future, the local 
church bids fair to have a more definite expectation of the 
participation of all its membership. Church membership 
must really mean something. The inner circle of the 
average church is, today, really giving a good witness for 
the saving grace of the Lord Jesus, but this cannot be said 
concerning the larger outer circle in the churches. The 
strength of the church of tomorrow will be in its spiritual 
ministries, which being properly organized and personally 
carried out, will reach out in unselfish service to meet the 
needs of humanity. The church of the future must pay 
the necessary price in labor, talent, personality and money 
to help win the great battle for Christ. The sacrificial 
Cross must again be the sublime power of attraction to 
every Christian. Jesus’ prophecy, “ And I, if I be lifted 
up, will draw all men unto me,” will then indeed be 
fulfilled, 


III 
THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 


Discipleship—The question is raised here: Has the 
average church some inherent weaknesses? If so, are 
they known, and can they be eradicated? If this were an 
idle question asked for the purpose of finding fault with 
the most important institution utilizing human endeavor, 
it would be a waste of time and energy. This chapter will 
attempt to do some constructive work on behalf of one of 
the necessary parts of the divine machinery which wields 
so potent an influence over the destinies of mankind, indi- 
vidual and collective. The Church was designed as a 
vehicle for the use and discipline of all people and particu- 
larly its own members. The word discipline presupposes - 
the word disciple. A disciple is a disciplined follower of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus sets forth quite plainly 
what it means to be a disciple. It is the duty of the 
Church to produce a disciplined membership through the 
processes of nurture and culture of every individual pro- 
fessor. To train a disciple of the Cross is no easy task, 
but it is essential to the Kingdom, the local church and the 
saved soul, that the technique of spiritual living become a 
part of the whole life. Spiritual processes will then be- 
come daily practices. Prayer, ministries, love of fellow- 
men, and self-giving would thus gradually become natural 
habits of every-day life. One great weakness of the 
average local church is that the theory of such a life is 
very generally accepted but no determined attempt at prac- 
tice is generally made. This failure to practice in daily 
living the ideals of the Christian life, is at the root of 
most of the failures dealt with in this chapter. Almost 


24 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 25 


half the members of the average church exhibit this fail- 
ure in a greater or less degree. 

A Sad Story—There is no joy in the writing or the read- 
ing of this part of this book. The feeling of the author 
is much the same as when he found it necessary to write 
a letter, many years ago, telling another member of the 
family that a brother was seriously afflicted and might be 
lost to the family circle. | 

Ignorance—The local church membership is seriously 
afflicted with a great ignorance, and in consequence, hun- 
dreds and thousands of spiritual brothers and sisters are 
lost to the fellowship of service. 

Many church-members do not know the simple fellow- 
ship duties of a church-member and consequently make 
no attempt to fulfill these obligations. While the church 
is largely to blame for such a state of affairs, a great deal 
of blame attaches to any man or woman who unites with 
an institution or organization, and is content to remain in 
ignorance of its united purposes and obligations. Moral 
as well as spiritual blight follows upon the heels of such 
wilful ignorance. 

Most church-members are ignorant concerning the 
duties of a minister and consequently they expect the im- 
possible and the unwise from their relationship to his 
office and ministry. “The preacher must please us.” 
“He must make his pulpit ministry entertaining.” ‘“ He 
must be kept in a place of financial dependence.” Igno- 
rance has often led to his failure, and being of human 
structure the force of local church precedents and circum- 
stances has made his failure become the failure of the 
church. 

Many are ignorant concerning the missionary tasks and 
obligations of the Church. The majority of church- 
members prove by their actions that they do not know that 
Christ’s world plan is a mandate and not a matter of per- 
sonal volition. The simple command of the Lord and 
Master was: “Go ye.” But the whole tenor of church 


26 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


procedure is to confirm the ignorance of the individual, 
and so he goes on his way disobedient to the heavenly 
command. After a while, experience in many cases seems 
to indicate that the weight of this disobedience produces 
convincing proof that the individual was never born again, 
but was only a “taster” of divine truth. Giving to mis- 
sions is not in and of itself necessarily a saving act, but it 
would seem to be necessarily the act of a saved soul. But 
giving is not a substitute for personal service when such 
service is possible. 

Fruits of the Spirit—When it is remembered that a 
child of God is known by his fruits, the appalling igno- 
rance of many a church member is seen in the failure to 
develop a prayer life, a Bible-reading habit, the habit of 
public worship, the weekly giving of money on a basis of 
prosperity, and finally the habit of family worship. As an 
institution, the local church is a part of the divine plan, 
but due to ignorant slothfulness, its human factors bring 
it into temporary disrepute and partial failure. 

It is not intended to put up any unreal church-member " 
before the fancy while writing these words. It is well 
_known that due to a lack of education, which has pro- 
duced spiritual degeneracy, half of our enrolled church 
members practically never worship, two-thirds of them 
give practically nothing for missionary purposes, half or 
more of them contribute nothing for local church support, 
and two-thirds of them render the church to which they 
belong no form of personal service from the beginning to 
the end of successive years. 

Attendance at Worship—It must be remembered that 
there has been, in recent years, a marked decrease in at- 
tendance by members of the average local church in spite 
of a large increase in the number of members belonging to 
the organization. Many church leaders try to blame this 
state of affairs upon the conditions that prevail in the 
world outside of the church, but it seems, upon careful 
study, to be due to conditions inside the institution where 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 27 


unspiritual life rules. In many a church there is a lack 
of brotherly love and people have been rushed in ignorance 
into some obligations which were not understood when 
they supposedly agreed to undertake them. The fact must 
be faced that some churches are crowded all the time. 
Such churches can be found all over America, (and some 
of them are not served by noted preachers, nor do they 
have great buildings or fine choirs), in which there is spi- 
ritual power in the simple ministries of the body and an 
abiding love in the fellowship of the people. The average 
church, however, has increased its numbers, but lost its 
power to develop in spiritual grace and poise the added 
members. 

Education—When the word education is used, there is 
no thought of any process that can take the place of spir- 
itual new-birth or regeneration, but there is in mind all 
those habit-forming, mind-enlarging, spirit-developing, 
pedagogic processes that bring into the heart, soul and 
mind, the knowledge of what is the way and the will 
of God, 

The task of the local church, as an institution, is in part 
to give that knowledge to all its membership. The duty 
of the pastor is to lead the church he serves in the business 
of acquiring that knowledge so that they may be prepared 
to win a lost world. The duty of each and every member 
is to seek and find that knowledge of God’s way and will 
which will enable him to grow in grace and in the knowl- 
edge and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The local church faces a hard task to make an ignorant 
church membership know and then do the will of God, but 
this is the task that confronts it today. Nothing else can 
take the place of a knowledge of this way and will of God. 
If some know that way better than others, the way to 
greater growth lies in their teaching it to others, and for 
that purpose the local church was instituted. Departments 
of the church are organized for certain purposes of the 
church such as the education of individuals through 


28 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


natural grouping. ‘Too often the group becomes self- 
sufficient. It often becomes a substitute for the whole, — 
called the church. Thus the unit is destroyed and a seg- 
ment becomes a separate entity, a law unto itself, 
The Women’s Organization—The women’s organiza- 
tion in a local church may be described as the church at 
work, utilizing its womenfoll- in the cultivation of the 
women and children, for all Kingdom purposes. Its work 
should not be hampered or prevented by the necessity of 
raising any money for regular church or mission purposes. 
The purposes lying behind the formation of a women’s 
organization in a local church should be first, to help the 
church do certain great tasks in a co-operative way which 
cannot be done very well by single individuals. Such a 
task is the evangelization of the world or the regeneration 
of acity. The second purpose should be to act as an edu- 
cational and inspirational force upon all elements in the 
local church and especially upon those that are backward 
or uninterested ; thus using for this purpose what is ad- 
mittedly the most progressive, intelligent and spiritual 
group in the church. ; 
The third purpose should be to furnish greater dynamic 
for individual lives by reason of the group activities car- 
ried on in the interest of those outside the group. We 
grow largely through doing for others. Other depart- 
ments such as the Young People’s group or the church 
school have their own particular objectives. 
Money versus People—These are great purposes 
whether viewed singly or as a whole, and they furnish 
abundant reason why the women’s organization should be 
strengthened and maintained for the sake of the church, 
in the most efficient manner possible. But it must be 
under the direct control of the whole church. In the 
future, the women’s local organization will have a much 
larger sphere of usefulness because it will drop its unwise 
and harmful money-raising activities and do its legitimate 
work along ministry, educational and inspirational lines. 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 29 


Both phases of work cannot be carried on successfully at 
one and the same time. A casual survey of present con- 
ditions will readily reveal the truth of this statement. In 
the past the average women’s organization has done a 
great deal of money-raising and a little educational work. 
Today, less than a third of the women in the ordinary 
local church have any relation to the world program of 
Christ’s Kingdom, even by the personal contribution of 
money. And it is beyond controversy that less than ten 
per cent. are doing persona] missionary service in con- 
nection with the many opportunities that lie before the 
door of the church. Less than twenty per cent. are stu- 
dents in the mission study groups in the average church. 
Viewed as a whole, the womanhood of the usual local 
church is less than twenty-five per cent. missionary. 

Church Officers—In confronting another phase of the 
conditions that prevail in the average local church, the 
fact cannot escape notice that many officials hold places of 
responsibility in the churches, who do not perform the 
duties of their office. Very likely the writer will be 
charged with a lack of tact, but it is wise and necessary to 
ask if pastors are not in a large measure to blame for the 
prevalence of this condition. How many pastors have 
trained their lay officers to fill their office in a worthy way? 

How many theological seminaries have trained their 
students in order to enable them to train their church 
officials in Biblical modern church ways? (This is dis- 
cussed more at length in a subsequent chapter.) 

How long do you think it would take the colonel of a 
regiment to find out about the competency of his officers ? 
Are the pastors afraid of their officials and therefore re- 
frain from any effort to change the conditions that exist 
in the average church? Or are they ignorant of what 
constitutes the duties of their various lay officers? In 
connection with the pastoral office, ignorance concerning 
such a matter is just as culpable as fear. Many a pastor 
and his easy-going friends will indignantly deny that igno- 


30 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


rance or fear enters into the handling of the situation. 
Then what is the cause of lay official impotence? Is the 
average pastor lazy or is he headed in the wrong direction 
as far as his own official duties are concerned? Does he 
still think that he is a hired man, hired to please the people 
and to do the work of the church so that the members 
need not serve and the officials will have someone over 
whom to exercise authority? 

The Pastor—Human nature is taken into account, and 
full sympathy is felt for the average pastor who has to 
deal with it at close range in his pastoral duties, but a 
sufficiently large proportion of ministers have produced 
competent officials to show that i can be done anywhere 
despite human nature. Therefore, it is to be feared that 
the cause of failure in many a church is the pastor. 

Our Group Stewardship—Now face the other side of 
the situation, the lay officers’ part in the life and work 
of the church. Kingdom and spiritual concerns, if they 
are genuine, must have the first place in the life of a be- 
liever. Yet hundreds of churches are running on a mini- 
mum basis, half the membership cannot be found, the | 
pastor is underpaid, the building is in disrepair, the finan- 
ces are behind, the missionary money is not produced and 
a very large part of the membership are both spiritually 
and morally pauperized because a few members meet all 
the bills. Scripture teaches that “There is that which 
withholdeth that tendeth to poverty.” Meanwhile, the 
offices are largely filled by men and women who are suc- 
cessful in the enterprises which they conduct in the busi- 
ness world, in the lodge realm, and in social circles. 
Trained Church Officers—Despite all objections, it 
must be admitted that local church offices must be filled 
with people who are well versed in the duties of their 
office and receive competent direction from their God-sent 
leader, the pastor. But now comes the evasive excuser 
saying: “Those men and women officers will not allow 
their pastor to train them.” We do not blame the lay 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 31 


officers if they can truly say they know more about the 
office than does the pastor, but a wide-awake pastor will 
soon learn all that the older officers can teach him, and be 
competent to help them instruct all new officials, and 
before long, because he is to lead them, he will know more 
on this subject than any of his officers. This matter has 
been discussed frankly with leading laymen and pastors 
and the almost universal testimony is that worthwhile lay 
people filling church offices are eager to get as definite 
training as possible in order to help them fulfill their 
duties. The lay officers agree that they ought either to 
get really into the duties of the office, or get out of the 
office. No red-blooded Christian man or woman filling a 
church office will get out, but every one of them will join 
with their pastor and get into their official duties in such 
a way as to help make the church a militant, missionary, 
ministering membership force at home and abroad. This 
has been done. It is being done in many places today. It 
can be done anywhere. Let all who love the Lord help 
to do it now in their own church. 

War—The failure of the churches to prevent war indi- 
cates a weakness. War is unspiritual. The Head of the 
Church Universal came to bring peace on earth and good 
will among men. With more than half the population of 
this country enrolled in the membership or congregations 
of the various churches, their voice made no impressive 
demand for peace when war threatened. Nor has much 
constructive work been done by the churches to establish 
permanent peace since war ended. As usual, plenty of 
resolutions have been passed, much talk indulged in, but 
nothing conclusive has been done. The same conditions 
confronted other countries where the church and state are 
united and where the churches enroll multitudes of citi- 
zens. The leading statesmen of practically every land 
during the World War held active membership in some 
church which acknowledges the Prince of Peace as its 
Head. 


32 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


_ Is it because the churches are at war with each other 
that they have lost the right to speak with compelling 
power about the abolition of war between nations? Does 
not the word of God teach that if one would lay an offer- 
ing before the God of peace, enmities must be ended in the 
heart and life of the giver before the offering is acceptable 
or effective? 

The Spirit of Peace—Communions or denominations, 
made up of local churches, are not at peace with one an- 
other. Between many of the leaders of some communions 
there are personal friendships, working agreements, and 
much accord. Among other leaders there is no real har- 
mony. When this matter of accord is sifted down to local 
fields, a very harmful spirit of rivalry and unwise compe- 
tition is often found. No individual or institution can 
command peace beyond, when within itself it has the 
spirit of war, and is engaged in warlike competition. ‘The 
Christian Church member must vote in accord with his 
prayers. 

Organic Union—This is not a veiled plea for organic 
union, Organic union is not essential now to the situation — 
as it exists, but a working agreement is essential to real 
peace and progress. Families live in peace and helpful- 
ness with one another as separate organized units, and all 
churches likewise could live together in peace and co- 
operation as separate organized units. Much progress has 
been made in the direction of accord in recent years, but 
the churches are still often antagonistic to each other. 
Some of the denominations that talk most about organic 
union are the farthest away from it because what they 
seek is not a union with others, but the arrogant assump- 
tion that they are the only true Church, and\all others 
must come to them and be absorbed in them. Churches 
are still divided into very many different and differing 
groups. There are a number of groups of Baptists, Pres- 
byterians, Lutherans, and Methodists, for instance, and 
sometimes it is hard to keep these different groups at peace 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 38 


with one another. This is a great cause of weakness 
among the churches, 

Churches have perfect principles, but many poor prac- 

tices. They adopt many high-sounding resolutions which 
they have not the resolution to try to execute. They give 
the world outside many noble precepts which outworn 
precedents prevent them from practising themselves to 
any appreciable extent. 
Brotherly Love—Something is wrong with the churches 
when they cannot promote brotherly love. It is still true 
that thousands of people outside of organized church life 
reverence the Lord Jesus Christ and give Him, as a Sav- 
iour and Brother, their heart’s allegiance. Yet those same 
people will despise and reject the churches and will “ carry 
on” outside their pale even though the church-members 
are supposed to be similarly related to Jesus. Jesus Christ 
is often recognized as a beloved Brother, by men and 
women who will hiss the Church He founded, or pass it 
by with silent contempt as an impotent failure. Could it 
be that, because the churches have not within themselves 
a dynamic spirit of brotherly love, the world outside con- 
siders them unfit exponents of that wondrously divine art 
and grace? 

All around, and even inside of the churches, are out- 
standing needs for the practice of real brotherly love, but 
the churches as a whole are not giving such a practical 
ministry of love to the individuals and groups about them. 
They are often more concerned to grow in numbers than 
they are to serve in humility and brotherly love. Here 
and there a church can be found giving “a costly ministry 
of love” to its neighborhood and world. But such a 
church is the exception, not the rule. Nor has the voice 
of the average church any power of appeal to its own 
membership on behalf of brotherly love. The lodges and 
civic groups have been obliged to assume the work of the 
church in some lines of ministry because the church would 
not do it. It cannot truthfully be said that the church 


By THE LOCAL CHURCH 


could not do it, for much of the money used in the work 
of outside or related organizations comes from church- 
members. But, long ago, the churches lost their vision 
of humble and personal service, and with the loss of 
vision went their larger ministry and the glory of victori- 
ous sacrifice. 

Self-Giving—What one has not, cannot be given to 
others. What one is unwilling to pay for in order to 
possess, one will not pay for to give to others. That this 
is true of the churches is evident from the fact that in the 
majority of cases, there is little or no concern for a lay 
ministry among the members, and in consequence more 
than half of them do not worship, do not serve each other 
or anyone, and are more concerned to get than to give. It 
is easy to get lost among the list of members of a local 
church. That is selfishness and the very antithesis of 
brotherly love. 

A Standard Needed—tThere is a fatal weakness in the 
church that has no standard of righteousness to which it 
militantly seeks to bring people in their practical daily 
living. All of them have standards, written and spoken 
in plain language, but at the same time contradicted in 
the plainest way by the practices of the church and its 
membership. For example, take the finances of the 
average communion or denomination. The financial ex- 
ample is chosen because it is easy to demonstrate. The 
income of the local church is constantly below the stand- 
ards of its needs or expenditures. The work of foreign 
and home missions still shows vast areas of land and 
countless millions of people without the saving knowledge 
of the Gospel. Yet the churches have, within the hold- 
ing of their members, money enough so that if the mini- 
mum of a tenth were given to God and half of it was 
spent to maintain the local institution and the other half 
for home and foreign missionary work, there would not 
be a corner of the earth within five years where everyone 
could not have a chance to hear the Gospel. The Bible 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 35 


standard of giving for all who know God is a minimum of 
a tenth. The Bible teaches it, but the churches do not 
practise it. 

Finances—The finances of the average local church re- 
veal this failure to teach a proper standard of giving. It 
is the written rule in most of the churches that every 
member is required to give according to the measure of 
his prosperity for the support of the work at home and 
abroad. Yet, in general, a total of less than half give any- 
thing from one year’s end to another, They all are sup- 
posed to make a verbal pledge to give when they join the 
institution, ‘That pledge is oftentimes repeated with a 
promise to help each other to fulfill the obligation, Offi- 
cials are elected or appointed to see that the pledge is ful- 
filled, but often the officials themselves are not living up to 
their own pledge. They cannot help others to do what 
they are notoriously failing to do themselves. 

Money has become the opening wedge in the failure of 

_the Church to produce a reasonable disciplined character 
in the lives of about half the average church membership, 
and a full discussion of its relation to the success and 
failure of the average church is to be found in a subse- 
quent chapter. 
A Lack of Reality—Have the churches practically 
abandoned their standards of life and conduct and the 
world outside has sensed there is not enough reality in 
Christian standards to give what is known it must have 
in order to be at peace with God? The Church cannot 
give outside what it does not itself possess. If the Church 
is to set standards of living and conduct it must first really 
possess them and practice them. A whited sepulchre will 
never be mistaken for a home, nor will a voice crying a 
truth make itself heard above a life that lives the truth. 
The average church does not live the truth to a reasonable 
extent, nor does it really attempt to do so in a courageous 
whole-hearted way. Fear of one another may well be at 
the root of this matter. 


86 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


Pledges—Something is wrong with the churches when a 
pledge to pay is regarded as a mere scrap of paper, As 
long as the modern Ananiases and Sapphiras in large 
numbers can control the policies of local churches in 
regard to finances, the churches will not come to a place 
of real leadership in the cause of righteousness. The 
churches have enlisted a mass of people, but have not pro- 
ceeded to train them in Christian conduct. They must be 
trained and schooled in righteousness through the work of 
the other members led by the minister. 

Not an Attack—A Diagnosis—Some misguided people 
will regard this as an attack on the churches and on Chris- 
tianity when they have read this chapter. It is not in- 
tended as an attack, but as a diagnosis of outstanding 
weaknesses and their cure, and is a simple plea for the 
teaching of real Christianity, that it may have its way in 
human hearts and in the churches of every name. Only 
in this way will peace, brotherly love and real standards 
of righteous living rule all hearts and lead the churches 
to a place of unity and victory for the Prince of Peace. 
Christianity Not a Failure—It is often taken for 
granted that Christian people are disappointed in their 
experience with Jesus Christ and that organized Chris- 
tianity as represented by the local churches is a complete 
failure. From this viewpoint many strongly dissent. The 
average practising Christian is not at all disappointed with 
what he knows about Jesus Christ, but has a very great 
realization that the Lord God has reason to be sadly dis- 
appointed by the use he makes of Jesus Christ, and His 
divine institution, the local church, 

The failure is in no wise to be attributed to the Lord, 
but must be put squarely upon the weaknesses developed 
by an incompetent administration of spiritual life and 
function as conducted by the average local church. In 
spite of all its present incompetence, the Church still 
stands as a tremendous force in the world about us. It is 
not the divine institution, but the people, who have failed 


THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 37 


to produce the results which should accrue through their 
associating together for Christian purposes. Even the 
worst enemies of the Church today would not, if they 
could, blot out the churches of Jesus Christ from the 
world about them. No matter how much they may 
despise and reject its teachings for themselves, they have 
a subtle realization of its values for those whom they love 
and for whose physical safety, at least, they are concerned. 
Church life continues to mean much to organized society. 
It must mean much more in the future. 

Ease-Loving Leaders—After all this has been said in 
defense of the Church and Christianity, great concern 
must be felt about the church-life of today. It should be 
a greater force in the world because it has developed 
many great Christian characters to live their lives in the 
communities around it. Wherein does the weakness find 
its real cause? Not in God, that is certain; nor in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, or His gospel, that is sure. How much 
of it is due to the weakness and failure of our leadership 
cannot be fully said, but some measure of blame must rest 
there. Much of the failure must be attributed to an ease- 
loving, soft-spoken, people-pleasing ministry who have led 
the rank and file astray with their part-gospel of future 
salvation. In Jesus Christ is to be found an eternal salva- 
tion, but whoever finds that salvation for eternity must 
today and now follow the way of a saved life. 

There can be no such thing as a salvation accepted to- 
day to become effective alone in another sphere. The 
leaders in the ministry are not giving themselves to teach- 
ing and training a race of professing Christians who are 
today living separated lives for Christ’s sake. There is 
no doubt that if the ministry caught the fire of a new 
passion and went at their task in a militant way, some of 
them would have a very hard time, but a time of cross- 
bearing would do great good. It is needed for the sake 
of the church and for the sake of an onlooking world. 
Certain it is that there will never be a competent church 


38 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


until there is a more competent ministry. The fact that 
some men are able to produce a militant local church is 
an indication of what others might do if they were equally 
earnest, willing and competent. 

The ministry within its own circles should weigh and 
examine itself and then determine whether or not it is 
really doing the work of the Lord in such a manner as to 
produce a really satisfactory and competent local church 
life. The average local church is not producing one- 
fourth of its possibilities. The world needs to have every 
local church produce all its Christian possibilities. 
Idealism — Christianity is practical idealism. The 
churches must therefore help people practically to be 
concerned about living the Christ-life today. A church 
program that is chiefly concerned about a future salvation 
rather than for a saved life today, is on the wrong track. 
If the concern for salvation is all for the life beyond and 
not in human relations and personal righteousness today, 
it is not Christian, and will continue to lead the churches 
to failure. The churches must not continue to fail. They 
must plan resolutely to teach and train each individual in 
their membership to live aright today. 

The weaknesses of the churches can be righted. They 
must be righted from within and under proper leadership. — 
There is no universal panacea except the love of Jesus 
Christ which is sufficient to accomplish all things. 


IV 
THE MINISTER 


Theological Education—For several generations, there 
has been a profound conviction that the theological semi- 
naries are not producing men adequately trained to do the 
real work of the ministry. Ministers have often expressed 
such an opinion after several years in charge of a church. 
It is quite natural, therefore, to find that many lay leaders 
have had the same conviction about ministerial education, 
and that such an idea sooner or later should become quite 
generally entertained wherever the work of the church is 
under discussion. 

It is fair to state that the intellectual preparation of the 
ministry in established educational circles is perhaps on 
as good a basis as is necessary and that it compares favor- 
ably with that given to technical students in other pro- 
fessions. But on the clinical side of preparation, the 
theological institutions are hopelessly outclassed by other 
technical institutions. 

Need of Clinical Preparation—Clinical work is both 
expensive and difficult to operate, but it is an indisputable 
fact that no minister is really competent to lead a church 
until he has had ample clinical work. Under present con- 
ditions the first church served becomes his clinical sphere 
and that is likely to be disastrous to both the man and the 
church. Either he is in command without competent 
supervision, or else he is in the hands of a group of lay- 
men whose church practices are already fixed. Either 
situation is undesirable and in addition the church suffers 
from lack of the scientific leadership that commands re- 
spect and secures co-operation in making needed changes. 


39 


40 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


Theological Seminaries—Theological seminaries, in 
general, are hard pressed for funds and they are numer- 
ous enough to retard each other in any appeal for more 
funds with which to do a better class of work. Then, the 
well-known conservatism of church leaders makes it ex- 
ceedingly difficult to secure a proper revision of the 
courses of study required of a ministerial student. 

Either the various seminaries should add clinical fea- 

tures to their courses, or they should require every student 
to attend some theological school offering needed courses 
of graduate training. The whole subject of theological 
education needs to be re-studied in the light of the needs 
of today and its relation to the Church of tomorrow. A 
group of interested churchmen recently endeavored to 
make such a study and published the results in a volume 
entitled “ Theological Education in America,” but the 
conclusions arrived at were so general as to be well-nigh 
valueless. ‘The matter is not one that can be dallied with, 
for the church of tomorrow is largely made or ruined by 
the leadership of today. 
Intellectual Preparation—It will be increasingly neces- 
sary that the average minister shall have intellectual 
preparation in order to attract and hold the people he 
must deal with. The radio, telephone, public school, and — 
the multitude of organized groups such as Kiwanis, 
Rotary, and women’s clubs are raising up a group of 
people who will not submit to the spiritual leadership of 
anyone of marked intellectual inferiority. On the other 
hand, this demand for intellectual preparation should not 
be interpreted to mean that the ministerial student shall 
of necessity be a great scholar or a scientist, or that he be 
conversant with such a variety of irrelevant topics that he 
would appear everything but a minister of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. The minister must primarily be a spiritual 
specialist. He must have poise. He must be able to 
balance various truths in the minds of his hearers and not 
lead them into fanaticism, 


THE MINISTER 41 


Careful thought and brave leadership will be needed to 
avoid the perils that follow the “short cut” ministerial 
preparation, The trend of professional preparation in 
general is towards a more thorough course and larger 
clinical experience and the ministry must not be the one 
profession to depart from this practice. 

A Teacher—The minister of today as he builds the 
church of tomorrow must be a real teacher like the Mas- 
ter. The Church of the future will be intelligent because 
every member will be properly taught, and a force of 
trained lay teachers will be developed under the leader- 
ship of the pastor. The attempt to meet the need for 
trained lay workers by the payment of small fees or a 
small monthly stipend adds another danger to the church 
situation. The need of each soul is to give. Service 
should be given without recompense unless the worker is 
wholly given to professional work in the church. 

The Supply of Ministers—Concern must be felt, today, 
about the number of ministerial candidates and the source 
of supply for the future. For a season the high quality 
was not maintained and the numbers fell off considerably, 
in part due to the increase of city population. Between 
1915 and 1920, the enrolled student body in agricultural 
colleges decreased over three per cent., indicating that the 
trend of young people is still towards urban life and away 
from rural conditions. This is a factor of great impor- 
tance to the church of tomorrow. In the past, the major- 
ity of our ministerial students have been recruited from 
village or rural church life. More ministers are needed 
and a decreasing supply of well-trained high-grade men 
will imperil the Church of tomorrow. 

A Salesman—The minister of today must be a first-class 
salesman. To use the word “sell” in connection with 
spiritual processes will doubtless cause offense to some. 
No offense is meant when it is said again with emphasis 
that the minister must be trained in the art of salesman- 
ship if the work of the Lord, represented by the church, 


42 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


is to have a permanent hold upon the coming generations. 
The sort of salesmanship implied is that which Jesus used 
as He walked the road to Emmaus and made the hearts 
of His two listeners burn. 

Leadership and Organization—The minister must be 
trained in the art of leadership and in the science of 
organization. ‘These two things go together in the work 
of a local church. The average ministerial student can be 
taught to exercise the art of leadership which will sooner 
or later draw practically all the members of the church 
into a congenial task, according to their individual capaci- 
ties. This realm of ministerial activity is the chief one 
where clinical training is needed. 

It would seem as if the average minister thinks that he 
is expected to fill all the needs of the church that he serves. 
Consequently when his limitations are reached, a necessary 
and important piece of work may fail to be done because 
he is not capable of leading the forces in its accomplish- 
ment. If he were a really capable, trained leader, he 
would proceed to find or to train in his lay forces some- 
one who had the essential qualifications for the task to 
be done. Such a lay leader, with the backing of the pastor, 
would fill the need. For instance, it is a common experi- 
ence of the writer to find a church attempting to use the _ 
Every Member Plan, with the pastor holding in his own 
hands all the varied pieces of organization and projection 
needed to make the Plan a success. The whole of the 
average minister’s time is in demand, and in consequence 
there is a lack of thoroughness and attention to details 
that dooms the Plan to failure. The church ought to 
recognize that few men ever combine in one life a talent 
for oratory, organization, and leadership with spiritual 
power and persistence in detail work. It is no reflection 
on the worth of any minister that this is so. He need not 
be ashamed to recognize it ; the church should recognize it, 
and act according to the needs of the case in co-operation 
with the pastor. 


THE MINISTER 43 


A Dependent Minister—The church he serves does not 
belong to the preacher any more than an orchestra belongs 
to the conductor. It is the conductor’s task to see that the 
players are capable and then to train them to produce a 
harmonious, high type of music. It is the minister’s task 
to help choose the lay leaders and then train them. In this 
way the work of the whole church is well done by the 
members. It is not always understood by the outside 
world that the minister is quite often blocked in this task 
of leadership and training by the lay officials. It is often 
the case that the preacher is dependent rather than inde- 
pendent. Too often he is not a leader, he is led astray 
from his real place. This will be true until the church 
places its finances upon a different basis than generally 
prevails now. Many a minister is shackled by his financial 
dependence to a small group of unspiritual men who view 
him in the light of an employee. If they like him and his 
message, all goes well, but if he attacks their modes of 
living or thinking, by a preached truth that hurts them, 
they have the means at their disposal to silence him or to 
get rid of him. The financial dependence of the average 
minister is a serious drawback to his most effective work. 
An Unorganized Church—The average church is clut- 
tered with organization to such an extent that it is un- 
organized to fulfill its functions. Its many parts are too 
often a law unto themselves and do not co-operate with 
the others. Only under experienced leadership can such 
a situation be changed. As an example in point, a recent 
survey of a church revealed the fact that five separate 
groups were dealing with the education of young people, 
and that thirty-two groups had treasurers and were all 
chasing dollars regardless of the financial plans of the 
church itself or of the other thirty-one parts of the organ- 
ization. It is only a very intrepid minister who would 
undertake to change such a situation. Lacking scientific 
training in church organization and finance, the old con- 
ditions continue and future generations of church people 


Ad, THE LOCAL CHURCH 


are despoiled of their possibilities. In the future, it must 
be made possible for a graduate of a theological seminary 
to command his technical situation. 

“Who is Sufficient? ”—The ministry may well cry out, 
“Who is sufficient for these things?” The task is so 
large and of such tremendous importance that it would — 
seem to call for a superman if the power of an ever- 
present working spirit of God is forgotten. A man in his 
own strength will be sure to fail in such a ministry, but a 
well-prepared man, called of God to the ministry, who 
undertakes to walk and work with God, can surely 
succeed. 

A Professional Consciousness—The ministry is in 
great need of a professional consciousness and standard. 
Under prevailing conditions, it is quite possible in many 
communions for an ignorant man to become a full-fledged 
minister and, in the eyes of the world, stand in equality 
beside the best prepared man. It may be pointed out that 
in the past a devoted, zealous man with a Gospel passion 
has often done a conspicuously successful piece of min- 
isterial labor. It was a common sight in my boyhood days 
to see donkey-drawn carts, for the donkey then had high 
commercial value, but one seldom sees such a beast of 
burden in these days of the motor vehicle. Fervor or 
passion today are not adequate substitutes for a trained 
mind. In the church of tomorrow it will doubtless be de- 
manded of a minister that he shall have both fervor and 
passion, and a thoroughly trained mind. It is not in- 
tended here, in any way to belittle the splendid work done 
in past days by some uneducated ministers and in discuss- 
ing this subject of training with them, it is found that they 
are among the chief exponents of the new demand for a 
well-prepared ministry. A minority of poorly-prepared, 
ease-loving ministers can do great damage to the majority 
of men who serve their churches to good ends, 
Financial Independence—The minister of the church 
of tomorrow will be made financially independent of the 


THE MINISTER 45 


likes and dislikes of those who contribute to the church 
treasury. This is vitally important to the future of the 
ministry and to the Church. He must receive sufficient 
salary to enable him to properly represent in the com- 
munity the church he serves, but he must never become an 
object of charity obliged to accept gifts in order to main- 
tain himself decently. 

Accountability—On the other hand, a much larger 
measure of accountability will be demanded of the min- 
ister concerning how his employed time is used in the 
work of his church. In some cases where ministers 
draw salaries for doing church work, the use they make 
of their time and energy is nothing short of robbery. 
Without definite accountability there will be increasing 
laxity. 

Freedom—The minister must have continued freedom 
within the bounds of the Gospel to present spiritual truths 
to his hearers. In the life of many a local church, shibbo- 
leths, often based upon misinterpretation of Scripture, 
combined with precedents and practices unwarranted 
either by common sense or the Word of God, have made 
the church helpless in the face of great needs in a sinful 
world. The primary condition that confronts the minister 
today is the need for a spiritual message applicable to the 
conditions and evils of today. 

Balance Needed—Revelations of God always go hand 
in hand with common sense practices of Christlike living. 
The balance must therefore be constantly maintained by 
the minister of today who would build a worth-while 
church for tomorrow. ‘The other extreme, however, has 
its evils, also, for there are too many ministers today who 
give heed to the call of the world and attempt to discard 
much that history and spiritual experience has proven 
essential to the work of the Church. The balance must 
be kept and the ministry must lead in developing the 
processes that will keep it. Doubtless the road lies some- 
where between the two ends of the present-day contro- 


46 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


versy represented by two widely separated groups of 
religious people. 

Deeds Not Words—It must constantly be emphasized 
by the ministry that Christianity does not primarily con- 
sist of repeating truths, no matter how illuminating they 
may be, but it does consist of living Someone, even the 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Master and model of every saved 
life. The Church of tomorrow will be weakened, if the 
Church of today does not have a ministry that maintains 
a divine balance between expression and profession of 
Christianity. 

Controversy—The theological wrangling of ministers 
has done much to weaken the hold of the churches upon 
mankind. ‘The worldly-minded person of course enjoys 
the unchristian fight, but loses his respect for the fighter 
and his kind. What the busy world of men and women 
need today is not more opinions or words about what 
someone thinks the Lord Jesus Christ said, but the simple 
example of a minister who lives as He lived among men, 
and preaches Him to others. That sort of a minister 
compels respect and secures an opportunity to serve, for 
it is always true that conduct speaks louder than words, ~ 
and conduct and words that support each other speak 
loudest of all. 

For a minister to become primarily a theological con- 
troversialist is first proof that he is being led astray. 
Some incipient controversy is dlways present and may be 
helpful, but when it becomes personal and professional, 
it serves the purpose of the world rather than the purpose 
of the Lord Christ. Controversy prolonged only becomes 
harmful when wordy, ignorant fanaticism undertakes to 
sweep aside balanced truth. The ministry should be con- 
stantly seeking for new light regarding what is truth in 
God and Jesus. 

Methods—Some churches under the leadership of cer- 
tain ministers are led into eminently successful paths and 
make tremendous progress. Such ministers move from 


THE MINISTER 47 


one local church to another and produce in the new situ- 
ation conditions of success achieved in former spheres of 
service. A church loses its successful pastor and secures 
a new leader. Quite often, under the changed leadership, 
that local church loses its place of power and fails to make 
progress. Such a record would seem to indicate that 
success could be achieved by practically all local churches 
if the leadership of the minister was of a proper caliber. 
Adaptable Methods—tIn concluding this chapter on the 
ministry, it is necessary to point out that methods of 
church work are constantly changing. The successful 
practices of the Church of yesterday often produce no 
present-day result. The Word of God in presenting the 
formation and early history of the churches gives only a 
very few definite methods. The reason is now apparent 
in the changing world about us. What would be success- 
ful in that day would not suit the conditions of this day. 
But the Word of God does give the minister, in his ca- 
pacity as church-leader, ample ground for the adoption 
of many good methods aimed to produce a church 
membership which will worship, serve, witness, and give. 
It must be the constant aim of every minister to find good 
methods, to become proficient in their use and then secure 
their adoption in his own church. Good methods of en- 
listment, education and finance are essential when spiritual 
powers are utilized as balance. The minister therefore 
must not become a mere mechanician, but seek to attain 
the high distinction of a potent spiritual guide. 


Vv 
ITS FINANCES 


Money and Salvation—Due to fundamental misconcep- 
tions concerning the relation of a Christian to his material 
possessions, the whole problem of church monies is still 
far from being solved in a satisfactory way. A man’s 
money bears on it the stamp of his personality. When a 
man has money in his possession for his own uses, it is 
just as much a part of his life as his soul. No man in the 
sight of God can be partly lost and partly saved. Either 
he is a lost soul or a saved one. If he is saved, all that 
belongs to him and his life as an individual must have 
entered into the surrender and acknowledgment that made 
it possible for him to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
A great apostle put it this way, that if we will confess 
Jesus as Lord, we shall be saved. Under such a state- 
ment, it is quite apparent that the man cannot confess ~ 
Jesus as Lord with his lips and deny the Lordship of Jesus 
Christ with his money. Such an attempt would be foolish 
in the eyes of every bystander, 

The Real Need—When, therefore, the cause of the Lord 
needs money, in reality, the need is not primarily money, 
but men. So great a money lack reveals the danger that 
besets God’s people because their lips cry “ Lord, Lord,” 
but their dollar self shouts “ Keep, keep, for self.” 

The difficulty is to get the people who withhold their 
money to see that spiritually they are not right with God. 
Such a sin as withholding from the Lord may trouble 
anyone for a little while, when starting a Christian life, 
but if the Lord Christ is really known and loved, the life 
will not persistently refuse to pay the monetary obligations 


48 


ITS FINANCES 49 


to God. The mark of a Christian is in the fact that when 
sin is realized, it is followed by repentance and a forsak- 
ing of sin. Again and again, it is necessary to remind 
ourselves that “not everyone that saith unto me, ‘ Lord, 
Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” 

Fear of Man—The quest, therefore, is not for money, 
but for men. Men and women must be told lovingly but 
fearlessly the truth about a proper relationship to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The local church needs to cease being 
afraid of the covetous, and see in them the great need 
that lost souls have for a saving Lord. Most of all should 
the institution be afraid to let them die neglected. Many 
church leaders are weary of hearing the fearful and cow- 
ardly decry the demand for money, “because it drives 
people away from the church life.” Improper appeals for 
money must not be made, nor should the Church seek to 
produce money in unspiritual ways; but a right approach 
for money will never drive a loving, intelligent disciple 
away from his Lord. When the local group makes every- 
one of its members intelligent and loving, then God’s cause 
will not suffer from a lack of money. | 
Stewardship—Immense progress, however, has been 
made in recent years to clear the financial atmosphere of 
the churches by presenting the obligations of stewardship 
to every member, and by fostering in the life of local 
churches a definite expectation that every member not 
receiving support from the Church shall be a contributor 
of record to current expenses and to mission and 
beneficences. 

A Church Budget—To this effort has been added j;ome 
very successful work tending to produce unity in the ad- 
ministration of church finances. It is now becoming a 
common practice for a church to make up, at the begin- 
ning of the fiscal year, a unified current expense budget 
which includes the maximum needs of every department 
of the church and to put alongside of this a similar all- 


50 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


inclusive budget for missions and beneficence. A sample 
of such a budget is displayed here. 


Pastor's salary, eet ve. vine 

Auto Upkeep $20). 6 sei cnne 

Pension Premium $......... 

Employed Force $.......... - Missionary Societies and 
Bible School $c woe Go ie Boards— 

Women’s Organization $.... Ay WEA da ue a 
Young Peoole’s ?S002/Sivs See ty se kw ay abe ea eat oie 

lens OWOrk Sok wie New ae cs . Sis Astin ori 

IVELISEC Slr ail dal rg cu CE aE oe 

Laight and: Heat) Sins ose : 

Evang. Meetings $.......... Women’s Societies and 
Repairs and Improv. $...... Boards— 

TASHIPANCE! Di sid God Pa Dein ottelte MPa APIS Meek 
Interest on Debt $......... i 

MSA Ms oa alc Wie eicthis aia ihe Schools and Colleges— 
Postage, Stationery $....... be Rep pa Es anat 
Pinte NS oa cue 4 aeee vee Other Beneficence SE . 
SOC LALeacits ae tien wikis tele te Reserve Fund for Mis- | 

ie lepine (Ore OL ful iuiae sionary Purposes $......e. 
Relig. Ed. Material $....... 
Church Reserve Fund $..... 

Pastors hung Ss euee bay acs 


Pauperized Members—tThe average man in the street 
looks upon the local church as an object of charity, and 
so he either patronizes it or despises it. About half the - 
members of the institution are so unintelligent concerning 
its purposes that they have no sense of responsibility con- 
cerning its maintenance. It would seem as if they had an 
idea that it was to be supported directly from God through 
miraculous means, or that it was the task of a few people 
who were rich or foolish. At all events, they have no 
place in its support and are paupers within its doors, 

A thorough Every Member Plan should therefore be 
conducted by the church, and after careful timely educa- 
tion in a spiritual atmosphere every member is approached 
with a view to securing a subscription for both current 
expenses and missions, to be paid week by week. This 
agreement to pay is based upon God-given prosperity, and 
is therefore subject to cancellation and increase or de- 


ITS FINANCES 51 


\ crease in accordance with the changed financial condition 
of each individual. 

The Follow-Up—A wise, businesslike, yet brotherly 
system of follow-up of every pledgor should be main- 
tained by the church officials, and the result will be that 
a total change of atmosphere pervades the financial af- 
fairs of the church. This should become the practice of 
every church. 

Increased giving often results from the Every Member 

Plan to such an extent that the whole life of the church is 
enlarged and participation in world enterprises, as well as 
enlarged programs at home, are made possible. A good 
beginning has been made with the forward-looking, 
progressive-spirited churches, but a great number of 
others, under the leadership of ignorant and non- 
stewarding laymen, or “ fear-full” preachers, decline to 
change from old and unwise financial procedure to any- 
thing that is new. The time-worn statement of some 
church leaders, “ We never did it that way before,” puts 
a barrier in the path to progress and spiritual financing 
and it often takes the death of some such local leaders to 
clear the path so that progress can result. 
The Minimum Budget—The difference between a mini- 
mum and maximum budget is becoming clear to many 
church financiers. Usually the old plan called for an 
attempt to raise from the willing givers such a sum of 
money as would allow the church to carry on its work 
during the ensuing twelve months, There was a con- 
sistent expectation that a deficit would occur at times 
during the year and a sure deficit would have to be faced 
at the end of the fiscal year. This was the signal for the 
same group of willing givers to meet the deficit, or failing 
this, it would be carried into the next year. This process 
describes what is meant by a minimum budget or mini- 
mum financing without any definite budget. 

Such a procedure is a constant barrier to spiritual life 
and progress and too often it brings other ills such as a 


52 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


disgruntled group of over-pressed members on one side 
and a pauperized group on the other side. A financial 
practice of that kind has brought many a church to the 
place where its credit in the community is gone and its 
financial embarrassments are a constant drawback to any 
definite progress and enlarged program. 

sadly, it must be said that the average local church has 
no cash balance, no reserve fund, and no credit in the 
financial circles of its community. Yet very often in its 
membership and on its official boards are the leading busi- 
ness men and financiers of commercial life in the com- 
munity. Rapid changes from such a condition are taking 
place and will continue to take place in local church life 
until the churches will eventually be among the most care- 
fully financed organizations in the world. 
Details Cared For—The finances of the average local 
church have been handled by the men. Men are accus- 
tomed to view things in the large and do not like to handle 
details. In commercial circles, the details are committed 
to others, often to women assistants. Women are devel- 
oped along lines that make them very successful in hand- 
ling details. For years they have been excluded from 
church financing except through minor or subsidiary de- ~ 
partments, and were unable to influence church financing 
to any great extent. In the face of this, they were often 
saddled with the debts incurred by the men. Lately, how- 
ever, numerous churches have included women in their 
finance committees, and details are being cared for. The 
men do their part of the work better, and the women give 
close attention to such detail processes as produce a good 
financial condition. No sensible person would desire to 
feminize a church, least of all the women themselves, but 
the womanhood of Christianity is entitled to fair repre- 
sentation on the finance board of the church instead of 
being forced in one or other of the various women’s organ- 
izations to assume and raise the deficits incurred by a male 
finance committee, 


ITS FINANCES 53 


Women and Money—Careful investigation and analysis 
hy a competent national organization reveals the fact that 
about eighty per cent. of all monies spent in America today 
ate expended by women. Even if this is an overstatement 
of fact, it discloses a disquieting situation when it is re- 
membered that the adult women in our local churches do 
not produce even a fourth of the money which passes 
through the treasuries of the church. Adult women con- 
stitute at least forty per cent. of the sixty-seven per cent. 
of females in the average church membership. One of 
two things, therefore, is evident. Either many women in 
church life are not sufficiently interested in Christianity 
to secure funds for such purposes, even when they are 
quite capable of securing funds for other purposes, or 
else many of them are evading their church obligations 
on the plea that their husbands will not provide them 
with money for church purposes. Womanhood has 
always been a dynamic factor in religious life, and the 
church of today must not neglect to develop its woman- 
hood in a proper stewardship of money for the sake of 
the future church. 

For many years churchwomen were often engaged in 
money-raising and many local organizations used the 
women as the channel through which all sorts of money- 
making processes were developed. Perhaps the women 
became used to getting money from other people and con- 
sidered that when they gave their time, energy, talents, 
food-stuffs and sewing materials, it was not necessary to 
give actual money. The teaching of stewardship, how- 
ever, forced many loving Christian women to see their 
mistake in that direction, and consequently there was a 
large decrease in the money-earning activities in many 
churches. But there are many signs today that the un- 
spiritual production of money for the Lord’s work is 
again increasing. It must not be allowed to increase, and 
all secondary methods for the production of Gospel money 
must be put out of business as rapidly as possible, While 


54: THE LOCAL CHURCH 


the world waits for Christ, and the local community is 
lacking in Christ-like ministries, the church membership 
ignorant and non-missionary, it is little short of a crime 
to use the abilities of churchwomen for the purpose of 
making profits out of commercial transactions in the name 
of the church. 

A Basic Principle—With this in mind, let us consider a 
basic principle and examine its soundness as it applies to 
the women’s organization or any other organized part of 
the local institution. 

No SUBSIDIARY ORGANIZATION IN THE LOCAL CHURCH 
SHOULD HAVE ANY PRIMARY MONEY-RAISING FUNCTIONS. 
This is a sound principle for the following reasons: 

1. If the church, as a household of faith, treats properly 
all the members of the organization along fundamental 
lines, that parent body will see to it that Every Member 
Pays to God the first fruitage of ali their increase for ALL 
Kingdom purposes. In addition, many should be helped 
to make gifts or over-all offerings as further tokens of 
love. All must give proportionately as well as regularly. 
Dues for missionary organizations and the penny habit 
in the Bible School of the church have done much to 
fix small and inadequate giving habits upon present church 
members. It is just as easy to die from impaired > 
circulation as from no circulation, except that the agony 
is usually greater in the former case. Every church- 
member must, therefore, be led to give regularly and 
proportionately to all departments of the church and 
missionary enterprise. 

This being done, every man, woman and child is giving 
to God for all the objects included in the task of the local 
church, and in consequence there remains no money- 
raising work to be done by a part of the whole. 

2. Women’s work around the world for women and 
children is part of the Kingdom task, and in consequence 
it belongs to the whole Church of Jesus Christ, and there- 
fore men and children who desire to be obedient should 


ITS FINANCES BB 


participate in it as well’as women. Women’s church and 
mission work should be included in the beneficence budget 
of the church. This is true even if in the larger circles of 
denominational missionary life, the administration of 
funds and the furnishing of workers abroad is assigned 
to women. This applies with equal force to the Church 
School, the Young People’s Organization, and the Men’s 
Organization. 

3. Giving in the spiritual life is like heart action in the 
physical life. It is a vital function of the individual Chris- 
tian life. The duty is individual because vital to the life 
itself. Scripture on this subject is largely addressed to 
the individual. 

As such, no organization can group a functional activity, 
the individual life must have its own function of giving 
or it will die. The function must also be related to the 
whole life or it will fail of its real objective. 

4, Largely because of the confusion and injury arising 
from the wrong methods of raising money, the educational 
work along fundamental lines has been lacking. Much of 
the so-called educational work along missionary lines has 
been mere camouflage for producing money, and in conse- 
quence the average local church is still missionary in name 
only. Either that or its one idea of missionary activity is 
to produce money. 

One of the great objectives of the women’s organization 
in the future will be educational and therefore funda- 
mental. As previously stated, the task is still at hand to 
make the church a missionary and ministering organiza- 
tion. To accomplish this result, all available time, energy, 
and talent contained in the body of women must be de- 
voted to this great task. Their efforts must be unham- 
pered by money goals. To assert, as is often done: “If 
the money-raising work is taken away from the women’s 
organization, there is nothing much left for them to do,” 
is to utter the greatest condemnation upon the past activi- 
ties of such bodies. The world and the average com- 


56 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


munity is still waiting for the knowledge of a Saviour, 
and so is the membership of the average church. 

5. Modern experience has demonstrated the wisdom of 
securing a large and continuous return on one approach 
to be paid in week by week, rather than some return in a 
number of small unrelated responses. An occasional 
thank offering completes a wise and spiritual function 
of giving. 

Excuses—Church workers of wide experience unite in 
saying that the various approaches of many small units in 
the church have been causing a large part of the excuses 
given by non-contributing members of the church. Many 
a church member, when met by the church committee, has 
said: “ Oh, I give already.” ‘‘ Not to the church expense 
or beneficence fund?” ‘“ No, but to the women’s organ- 
ization,” or “to the Bible School.” So the giving of the 
dollar or some such small sum has furnished an excuse 
to many members why a real stewardship should not 
be carried out in the life. The constant nagging ap- 
proaches for cash have driven away many a woman 
from the missionary organizations and also from the 
whole life of the church. Scientific business efficiency 
aims to eliminate false motions even in the laying of 
brick. Why, then, use from eight to ten motions in ~ 
paying God’s money into His service when it can be 
done in one orderly motion by using a Church United 
Budget, a double-pocket, week-by-week envelope, and an 
Annual Every Member Plan? 

Regular Week by Week Payments—Take away the 
money-raising activities of all subsidiary parts of the 
church and then, with the help of the women, see to it 
that the church secures from every member a reasonable 
response and we will solve the chief difficulty of eighty © 
per cent. of the churches throughout the world. In 
recent years it has been demonstrated, over and over 
again, that it is easier to secure one adequate response in 
an orderly approach than it has been to secure smaller 


ITS FINANCES BY 


sums through a number of approaches. Secular organiza- 
tions and some religious bodies are able to secure regular 
sums of money from their members. All the churches 
can do this if they will just do it. 

6. Group-giving has led to unspiritual and even illegal 
methods for producing money. Many of these methods 
resulted in the money being dug up out of other people’s 
lives rather than being given by the children of God as 
an act of love for and worship of Him. Money-raising 
by segments of the church leads quite often to group 
selfishness, narrowness and isolation. Paying money into 
an organization from motives of sex loyalty is not neces- 
sarily worshipful giving. The worship and not the money 
is of prime importance. The worship of God is the cause, 
and the money produced is its effect. 

Group methods have resulted in many Christian people 
thinking that time and energy can be given to God as sub- 
stitutes for money. The first-fruits of all your increase 
is God’s loving demand of all His children. 

7. Divisive and competitive feeling has often been 
aroused by the money-raising proclivities of subsidiary 
parts of the church unit. Many times it has been said, 
“Let the other people take care of themselves, we have 
raised our apportionment,” or “The Women’s Society has 
raised more for women’s missions than the church has 
raised for its general Society,” or as the last-named or- 
ganization is often dubbed, “’The Men’s Society.” Some 
careful thought will reveal the vital dangers in the 
thoughts that lead to such remarks, | 

8. The female sex constitutes sixty-five or more per 
cent. of the usual church membership. That large share 
of the church should have adequate representation on the 
various administrative boards. The women have not been 
fairly treated in this respect. Nor is the church unit 
blameless concerning the causes that have led many 
women’s groups to feel that every man’s hand was against 
them. Sometimes even a pastor has failed to properly 


58 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


espouse the just catise of the women as against other parts 
of the local church. 

9, Enough churches have tried out the plan of a 
Church United Budget to prove that it works well when 
it is well worked. It is simple and will produce the 
needed resources if a thorough Every Member Plan is 
made every year on a proper spiritual basis. 

10. The principle is sound, even if it flies in the face 
of the discipline or governing precedents of the com- 
munion. Other such articles or rules have been changed. 
For instance, in recent days some communions, in spite 
of precedents, have given women their just rights and put 
them on a basis of equality with other members. Even the 
conservative church is slowly coming to a basis of real 
democracy and sweeping away unjust sex distinctions. 
Women in the church should be given a chance to help 
administer all the funds of the whole body. 

11. The principle is sound in that it puts upon the 
whole household the fundamental task of producing stew- 
ards. Then it leaves as a distinct piece of further funda- 
mental work the task of education as well as the other 
duty of furnishing inspiration without a money objective. 
Idealism Again—“ But,” someone says at this point, 
“stop right there. You are supposed to have your feet. 
on the ground, and this plan is idealism.” Do not shy at 
idealism, however. Many a church is today working this 
so-called ideal plan with a large measure of success. It 
produces peace of mind, more money and a unified church, 
Try it before you condemn it, or before you let your 
precedents or prejudices make you fight the plan or reject 
the principle set forth here. 

Regularity of Payments—The plan of giving week by 
week has been successfully inaugurated in a large number 
of churches. The wage-earner, paid each week or twice 
a month, finds this plan enables him to pay regularly and 
in proportion to the size of the wage earned from time to 
time. The salaried man is enabled to put aside a part of 


ITS FINANCES 59 


each month’s salary as God’s money for gospel purposes, 
and to distribute it during the ensuing four or five weeks. 
Even the farmer, the professional man, or a salesman 
working on a commission basis finds the plan of giving 
week by week conducive to good stewardship and to the 
orderly habit of budgeting his earnings upon a bal- 
anced basis. 

The week-by-week basis of giving has enabled many a 

church to pay its bills with promptness and secure a new 
respect as a Christian organization. It has also solved 
the problem of many a minister who in bygone days was 
paid his salary at irregular intervals and therefore paid 
his obligations so irregularly as to endanger his financial 
standing in commercial circles where the situation was 
not understood. 
Monthly Distribution—Further progress must be made 
along the line of week-by-week payments, to clear alto- 
gether the path to proper church financing, Week-by- 
week payments must be followed up by prompt monthly 
distribution of all money contributed for missions and 
beneficences. With all the progress that has been made 
towards better financial processes in church circles, it re- 
mains true that many a missionary or benevolent organ- 
ization still pays out enormous interest charges on funds 
borrowed to maintain current payments merely because 
church treasurers will not make prompt monthly disburse- 
ments of funds contributed for the work of designated 
organizations. 

One communion recently reported that sixty-three per 
cent. of all monies contributed by many thousands of 
churches, came into the denominational treasuries within 
the closing three months of the year. Money had to be 
borrowed from the banks during the opening nine-months 
period, and the resulting interest charges constituted an 
unbusinesslike and un-Christian waste on the part of the 
churches, and the officials charged by them with the 
handling of their funds, 


60 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


A recent visit to one prominent church secured from 
the missionary treasurer the acknowledgment that he had 
on hand, and lying idle, over four thousand dollars which 
had been in process of accumulation during the previous 
nine and a half months. At the same time, the denomina- 
tion enterprises to which that money belonged had been 
paying six per cent. interest upon money borrowed to pay | 
current bills. Much progress has been made in recent 
years in church finance, but much more needs to be made 
before the churches realize the advantages that accrue to 
well-financed institutions. 

A Maximum Budget Necessary—A maximum church 
budget is built with progress in mind, and with the defi- 
nite expectation that in the current expense fund there 
will always be a balance in the bank to cover every pos- 
sible need, usual or unusual. A church was recently 
visited which, after twenty-six years of financing on a 
minimum basis, was experiencing, for the first time, the 
benefits of maximum financing. At the end of the first 
quarter of the year the current expense treasurer reported 
all bills paid and a substantial balance in the treasury. 
One of the older members arose in the meeting and de- 
manded to know why the treasurer had made such a 
foolish error, and asked that it be corrected at once. 
When he was informed that there was no error, but was a. 
correct statement, he passed his hands through his hair — 
and remarked: “ Well, I can scarcely believe it even now, | 
for I never expected this church to be able to meet its 
bills as it went along; much less to have a balance on 
hand.” ‘Then he sat down with a mystified air. 

Proportionate Giving—Such a condition ought to exist 
in every church, and before long it will be so, for it is 
rapidly coming true that the membership are being taught 
stewardship, and enlisted to give week by week on the 
proportionate basis of the tithe, at least, of all money 
earned. Standards of giving on a per capita basis are 
going up steadily. A bureau of statistics states that the 


ITS FINANCES 61 


average income of every man, woman and child is about 
$640 per annum, ‘The standard of giving for Christian 
people should therefore be upon a minimum of $64 per 
capita, per annum, for all gospel purposes. But it is far 
below that now. In some local churches it goes as low as 
$9.70 per capita, per annum, for current expenses and 
$1.70 for missions and beneficence. In other local 
churches, it goes as high as $34.70 per capita, per annum, 
for current expenses and $61.10 per capita, per annum, 
for missions and beneficences. A building enterprise will 
often make these figures even higher, as people will con- 
tribute from their capital funds when their church is 
erecting a new edifice, 

A fair statement of the standard of present-day giving 

is about on a basis of $20.68 per annum, per capita, di- 
vided between current expenses and missions as follows: 
Current Expense, $15.86; Missions, $4.82. When it is 
remembered that present-day giving is all done by about 
half the members of the average church it will be realized 
that those who do give are generally giving upon a mod- 
erate basis. The real task before the average church is 
to enlist those who now give nothing of record, and to 
increase the standard of giving practiced by many present 
contributors, 
Further Progress Needed—When the situation, there- 
fore, is viewed from the standpoint of the average giving 
of the denominations, or of the individual, much progress 
must yet be made before a Scriptural standard of sacri- 
ficial giving is reached. The problem is not one of good 
methods primarily, but one of spiritual life and a proper 
relation to God. To push methods alone will be to court 
certain failure. ‘To teach stewardship and the proper 
relationship of every child of God to his Father-Owner, 
will be to lay a good foundation for right methods which 
will add to the joy and dignity of every money process in 
the church. 

The outlook for the Church of tomorrow is very bright 


62 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


indeed if the Church of today will continue to build into 
the lives of the younger generation the cardinal principles 
of stewardship and spiritual giving. A church well 
financed upon a spiritual foundation will have no need to 
justify its existence. It is already justified in the devel- 
oped sacrificial self-giving of its members. 


VI 
THE OBJECTIVES OF ITS PROGRAM 


Criticism—Church people, in general, have always had a 
particular aversion to any form of criticism, and have 
usually resented it in an unmistakable way. It must be 
remembered, however, that there are two kinds of criti- 
cism, destructive and constructive. 

Constructive criticism should always be welcomed and 
the necessary attention given to it, in order to produce 
the best possible results for the institution concerned. 
Destructive criticism should likewise be given careful 
attention. The enemies of an institution such as the local 
church can unwittingly help the cause of the church by 
drawing attention to failures and weaknesses which can 
then be easily avoided and thus, in the end, strengthen 
instead of destroy its influence. 

This study of the program of the local church will be 
frankly critical, but its whole aim and purpose will be to 
make it a stronger and more potent instrument for right- 
eousness in the days that lie ahead. 

Development of the Members—The first and most 
serious concern of any local church is to care for and 
develop its membership. To concentrate on the adding 
of new names on the roll while allowing those previously 
enrolled to drift away in a steady stream is nothing short 
of criminal carelessness, 

Preach the Gospel—Of first importance in the care and 
development of church-members is the preaching of the 
Gospel. That task belongs primarily to the minister. He 
is the undershepherd and must see that the sheep of his 
flock are fed systematically and properly. Nothing can 


63 


64 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


substitute for the preaching of the Word of God. To 
feed people science, art, politics, economics, or some popu- 
lar stuff which attracts a crowd temporarily, is to miss the 
greatest opportunity of ministerial responsibility, Man- 
kind needs spiritual help, and in the church services of 
worship they should find the help needed. The fact that 
church members absent themselves from the worship life — 
of the church is proof that they need spiritual help. The 
church is not at its task supplying it to them in such a way 
that they will attend and secure the help they need. 
Filling the Pews—lIt is not the task of the minister to 
fill the pews, but he must not help to keep them empty by 
lack of work or spiritual dynamic. The task of bringing 
the membership to the house of God belongs to the mem- 
bers of the church, and in particular to the lay spiritual 
officers. This is almost a revolutionary viewpoint to many 
a church member and officer, but it is the common sense 
point of view. No one man serving as a pastor is able to 
keep track of several hundred people, and at the same time 
meet the other numerous and really essential demands 
upon his time and energy. It would seem plain, by the 
New Testament, that lay spiritual officials called deacons 
and deaconesses should be chosen in the proper manner 
and in sufficient numbers to guarantee that every member 
of the church will be lovingly and thoroughly cared for 
through personal ministries. 

A Group Plan—A simple plan for forming the rriesnbees 
ship into groups and designating a deacon and deaconess, 
or some other responsible lay worker, to the oversight of 
each group has worked wonders even where a lack of 
thoroughness has been manifested by some of those 
officials. Lack of thoroughness and persistence are two 
of the besetting sins of many a local church. But there 
are frequent signs to indicate that these sins are being 
banished in many churches, 

Ignorant Members—The program of each church 
should include the education of every member and of the 


THE OBJECTIVES OF ITS PROGRAM 65 


whole constituency of all departments in its organization. 
The average church-member is not well-versed in the 
tenets of his faith. He is often utterly ignorant of the 
simple principles that underlie the objectives of his de- 
nomination. When it comes to more complex things such 
as doctrine, missions, stewardship and social service, the 
mass of church-members are quite untaught. The igno- 
rance of church-members constitutes the one great ground 
for the failure of a large percentage of them to achieve 
any measure of spiritual growth. At the same time, it 
reveals the reason why the membership losses experienced 
by many churches average each year about half as many 
as the additions upon professton of faith. When fully 
realized, this is an appalling fact. Pulpit utterance of 
fundamental tenets is not sufficient; they must be supple- 
mented by class teaching. 

Christianity and education are closely related. It might 
be said that education is the child of Christianity. The 
Church of tomorrow, if it is to have real strength, will 
have it largely as a result of adopting and carrying out, 
today, scientific plans and processes of education. 
Trained Teachers—The past has seen the Church de- 
‘pending upon mass efforts often highly charged with a 
rank form of emotionalism. Some emotion is a good 
thing, but before and after an emotional stirring of a mass 
of people must be put personal teaching by trained teach- 
ers. Practically every church has a corps of trained 
teachers in its membership, and they ought to be linked 
in a service to their church that eventually produces an 
intelligent constituency. 

There is no reason today for continued ignorance, and 
if it is allowed to continue, it will seriously affect the 
churches of tomorrow in all their work at home and 
abroad. 

A Purpose—Every church should have a very definite 
purpose before its entire membership, so that all the tal- 
ents, powers, and personalities of the institution, as well 


66 - THE LOCAL CHURCH 


as of the organization, can be focused upon the accom- 
plishment of that purpose. 

Churches, like individuals, differ. No two of them are 
exactly alike in their possibilities and powers. It is con- 
sequently a practical impossibility to state in concrete 
form a general purpose or program that would suit the 
majority. | 
Realizing the Possibilities—-What percentage of its 
possibilities does the average local church utilize? Those 
possibilities lie in two directions—the spiritual elements 
such as prayer, fellowship, love, worship and stewardship, 
and then the personal or material elements such as talents, 
money, time, personality, and group or united action. 
Many groups of lay leaders and ministers have placed the 
percentage of possibilities realized as low as five and as 
high as twenty-five per cent. Doubtless it is somewhere 
between these two figures, with here and there a church 
that may even exceed the twenty-five per cent. of realized 
possibilities. It is a most promising sign that many lay 
leaders and ministers today are willing to frankly face the 
situation and weigh their failures and successes in order 
to eliminate some of the failures and achieve a greater 
measure of success. It is a difficult matter to examine a 
local church and justly weigh its possibilities because they 
differ very widely in different sections of the country and 
in the different types of churches. Until self-examination 
has made more progress and the churches know how to- 
properly appraise their operations and possibilities, there 
will be a continued measure of failure, and greater than 
is necessary. “ Know thyself!” is just as useful a slogan 
for a church as for an individual. 

Get the Facts—Every church should study its environ- 
ment, competitive factors, buildings, financial possibilities, 
the personalities of its constituents, and its past history 
and ministry. In the light of these factors, it is enabled 
to come to some very definite purposes concerning its 
future activities. Unless this is thoroughly done, the 


THE OBJECTIVES OF ITS PROGRAM 67 


church will have neither plan nor program to make it 
a worthwhile organization. 

Accountability—There is tremendous possibility in a 
definite plan and program. First of all, it requires a 
sense of accountability. Then it calls for a careful as- 
signment of available personalities according to their 
fitness for various duties. It leads to the discovery of 
needs and of available but heretofore unused person- 
alities and powers. It creates a need for improved edu- 
cational processes so that the Church may not be faced 
with problems which cannot be met because of the dearth 
of adequate leadership. Such educational processes will 
serve to train for leadership those who now are weak and 
incompetent merely through lack of proper and personal 
oversight. 

A Definite Plan—A definite plan and program reveals 
the strength and the weakness of the parts of the whole, 
and strengthens the weak by the wise use of the potent 
parts of the whole. The successful church of the future 
will give particular attention to the formulation of a series 
of definite objectives to be achieved through a plan and a 
program for the use of the whole group. A well planned, 
properly carried out program of spiritual ministries helps 
to justify the continuance of any church. 
Missions—The program of every local church must be 
permeated with the missionary spirit and enterprise. Of 
course, it is a costly proposition, but worth all its costs. 
Practically every church has a membership with means 
enough, if they will give as God desires, to enable them to 
fill a worthy place in the world endeavor. To try con- 
stantly to gather sums of money from those who have not 
the proper background of knowledge and inspiration is 
wasted effort. Money will flow from the lives of a 
spiritually-minded, world-visioned and _ well-informed 
group of people. The church of today needs, therefore, 
to pause long enough in its desire to get money for mis- 
sions or current expenses in order to give the uninterested 


68 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


church-member a real chance to be indoctrinated and en- 
vironed. In the meantime, the earnest, loyal givers of 
today will maintain the present missionary standards and 
within a short period will find their ranks receiving large 
and worthwhile additions from those who have been 
properly taught before they are importuned to give for 
what they know nothing about. 

If the women’s missionary society in the average church 
would let all the money-raising be cared for by the church | 
itself, and would turn the major part of their time and 
talents into educational, prayerful, personal ministry, and 
inspirational missionary efforts, the church of tomorrow 
would surely be missionary. 

An Example—Some time ago, a woman’s organization 
gave up the task of raising money and turned their whole 
attention to ministries and missionary education. In the 
first six months of their work they regained the love and 
interest of a woman who had been a church-member for 
many years, but had not been in the church for several 
years because, she said: “ You never come near me unless 
you want money.” Before the year ended, that one re- 
gained member had personally and lovingly given to mis- 
sions more than the whole woman’s organization had 
previously raised in a whole year. The probability is that 
she will continue to give in the future in the same measure. 
To chase dollars, no matter how much they seem to be 
needed, as has been shown elsewhere, does not belong in - 
the task of any subsidiary part of the church. The church 
itself, as a whole, must secure from every member a pro- 
portionate, systematic, all-inclusive participation in spirit- 
ual giving. That having been done, every part of the local 
organization will devote its time, energy, and talents to 
the spiritual life, the envisioning, householding and edu- 
cation of all within reach. “ Foolish idealism,” some 
will say. . 
Personal Giving—Others will refuse to entertain the 
idea because they like and have grown accustomed to the 


THE OBJECTIVES OF ITS PROGRAM 69 


commercial attempts to produce money. There is only 
one correct and direct method, which is for all church- 
members to give of record for all purposes, week by week, 
on the basis of their God-given prosperity. This whole 
program as outlined here has been in successful operation 
in enough churches, scattered all over the land, to guaran- 
tee its success. Before it is put into universal operation, 
the hide-bound, precedent-hugging, money-grabbing, non- 
stewarding church-members must be won over or elimi- 
nated from the body. A movement in the right direction 
has been started and will come to the fullness of power in 
the Church of tomorrow. 

A Lack of Life—When a local church has a real spiritual 
life, it will have enough means to carry out its full share 
of Christ’s world program. Today, much that might be 
done cannot be attempted because there is no money in 
sight to finance the undertaking. Yet about half the mem- 
bers never give one cent towards maintaining the local 
work and its world outreach. 

Impoverished Churches—Today, many a church flut- 
ters around its task, hindered by conflicting agencies, 
impotent to launch out into the depths of service, because 
it is impoverished financially and undeveloped spiritually. 
It may be asserted by some that far too much mention has 
been made in this study about finance and money. Much 
has been said about these things. Much needs to be said 
in the church of today until practically everyone comes to 
the knowledge that to be a child of God means the recog- 
nition of a personal stewardship of all that belongs to life. 
Money, therefore, is involved. Love and a steward’s 
privilege must therefore operate in each and every life, 
causing it to produce the money fruitage of real steward- 
ship. The prime factor, therefore, is not money, but life, 
spiritual life, a right relation to God. ‘To the end, there- 
fore, that the churches of tomorrow may not be hindered 
as are the churches of today, every church-member must 
be taught how to love God, and among other ways of 


70 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


witnessing for Him, to properly distribute the money in 
his possession. 

Proper Cultivation—While riding through 2 section of 
country where large tracts of land had recently been 
brought into new use by means of modern cultivation 
we noticed that enough of the old worn-out remnants 
were on hand to make a vivid contrast between the old and 
the new conditions. Here was an ancient orchard with 
the trees all bent and gnarled. They were scale-infested 
and insect-eaten. Where there was any fruit upon the 
trees, it was small, maggoty and unsalable. One glance 
made it quite apparent that the weed-strewn acres with the 
almost useless trees upon them were not producing enough 
revenue to pay even the taxes, much less produce any 
return in the way of interest and profits. Those orchards 
were a desolate-looking sight. 

Scattered in between the patches of worn-out orchard 
were others that were a joy to behold, for their appearance 
told a story of proper selection, wise, continued cultiva- 
tion, and great productivity. Men and women were mov- 
ing about, under, and in the trees. Great boxes of fruit 
were piled up ready to be sent to market. The trees were - 
symmetrical, clean of insects, and growing, while the land 
beneath them showed that it had been carefully cultivated 
and enriched. What a contrast there was between the 
two kinds of orchards! 

In both cases, however, the climate was the same and 
also the land, yet on one side was failure, and on the other 
success. The old trees and the young ones were the same 
variety, but in the case of the old orchards, all sorts of 
scale and insects had been allowed to ruin the trees, while 
a spray and other modern care had protected the new 
trees. As we rode on, we wondered what would have 
happened if the old orchards had been properly cared for. 
Just then we turned a bend in the road and there was an 
old orchard that bore every evidence of care and conse- 
quent profit. Underneath and in the trees were men and 


THE OBJECTIVES OF ITS PROGRAM 71 


women busy gathering a great harvest of fruit. The old 
orchard was as pretty a sight as any of the younger ones, 
for tree graft, spray, trimmer, plough and soil enricher 
had all been used to full advantage. The difference be- 
tween the good and the poor orchards was a matter of 
care and cultivation. 

Churches Contrasted—With the orchards left behind, 
the thought of many a local church came to mind. Some 
of them were united, progressive, evangelistic, missionary, 
educated and productive, while others alongside of them 
are disturbed by factions, unprogressive, without evangel- 
istic passion, non-missionary, ignorant and unproductive. 
‘Inevitably it will be found that the successful church has 
been properly cultivated under wise and heroic pastoral 
and lay service, while the other type of church has had a 
narrow, unwise, easy-going pastoral and lay leadership 
which has been content to let things drift into failure. 
‘There are many successful churches, enough to prove that 
all have a right to succeed if the work is well done. Suc- 
cess should be the rightful heritage of every church. 
They all have the same God, the identical Saviour, the 
ministry of the same Spirit, and the same wonderful Gos- 
pel, but some use these blessings aright, while others fail 
to do so. We mark, therefore, the great contrast between 
the two kinds of churches as we did between the two 
sorts of orchards. Let us cultivate and properly care for 
our local churches through wisely devised plans and pro- 
grams, and then their continuance will be assured. Only 
by such means can their continuance be justified. 


VII 
BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 


Changes Needed—tThe foundations that are laid, today, 
will largely determine what stability, dynamic and success 
will mark the churches of tomorrow. It has been indi- 
cated that some decided changes need to be made in the 
processes and programs of the average church of today, 
in order to meet the constructive criticisms of some 
within and many without the membership. In the future 
the local church will be more and more under scrutiny, 
and it must justify its maintenance by its life of good 
works, 

The Rural Church—Much more attention must be paid 
to the small church, in what is often spoken of as the 
rural or village situation. A measure of responsibility for 
a changed small church rests upon the larger and more 
prosperous churches. A considerable portion of the city — 
church membership comes from country and village dis- 
tricts. The trend is still towards the city and for the 
properly equipped, well led and adequately housed city 
or town church to ignore present conditions in the average 
village or rural church is to seriously damage its own 
future. Many young people are raised in a rural church 
where there is no equipment for doing worthwhile work, 
where there is no social program and no educational pro- 
cesses, but simply occasional preaching services conducted 
too often by an earnest, but unprepared, inadequate min- 
ister. Many of these young people migrate to the cities 
and towns. This creates a situation whereby a large group 
with such a background, get into the city or town church 
by dismissal from the village or rural church, To allow 


72 


BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 73 


this situation to continue is to create a serious difficulty in 
the larger centers in maintaining proper standards and 
achieving goals that are worth while. The inadequate, 
poorly-prepared, underpaid small church minister must 
have some worthwhile help from the more fortunate 
preacher, and the large church with its needs properly 
supplied must help those in a less prosperous condition. 
In a mid-western town of almost fifty thousand people, 
there is a church of seven hundred members, and almost 
two hundred of them came from small churches in the 
surrounding villages and rural sections. The formative 
period in the lives of most of those two hundred people 
had passed. They had been raised on a very simple, in- 
adequate and oftentimes emotional type of religion, and in 
consequence they had no conception of a real worship life 
or of what it means to really serve the Kingdom and the 
church. They had no witnessing power, no service out- 
look, and had not been trained in giving as stewards of 
God’s manifold blessings. It must not be understood that 
the city churches or larger churches are being held up as 
models, There is many a church in a village or rural 
section that does a far better type of work than is being 
done by bigger and more prosperous ones. The small 
churches with a membership of 125 or less comprise 
almost seventy per cent. of the total. They do not ask 
nor accept charity, but they do need and will gladly accept 
co-operation in service and training. A great amount of 
attention is now being given to the small village and rural 
church, and it augurs well for the future of the whole 
cause Of the local church. 
Not Size That Counts—Recently, in the terminal yards 
of a great railroad system, one of the modern mogul 
engines of tremendous size was standing motionless on 
the tracks. Just then, along came a dinky little engine, 
scarcely one-fourth the size of the mogul. The little 
engine backed down, the switchman coupled it to the 
mogul, and with a puff and a bit of a snort, the little fel- 


74 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


low pulled the big fellow away. It was a very interesting 
scene and compelled an analysis of the situation, 

It was not size that counted, for the big engine was 

helpless, while the little engine had the power not only to © 
move itself, but also to pull the big one along. It is not 
size that counts: in a church membership, even though 
some of its members may boast loudly that “my church 
has a thousand members.” ‘There is a little church near a 
very much larger one, but it was the little church that 
furnished example and then power to the big church when 
it was standing still for lack of Irfe. With churches, as 
with engines, it is not size but power that counts, and 
such power, in the case of the church, is the power of 
believers who walk with the Lord. 
Work Counts—It might be noted, also, that the cab of 
the big engine was empty while the cab of the little fellow 
was occupied by two men hard at work. One man was 
putting fuel on the fire under the boiler in order to pro- 
duce power, while the engineer was making wise use of 
the power that was being produced. The labor of these 
men counted, and not the size of the engine. 

There is a church of several hundred members’ led by . 
a man of God with a working force of people that pro- 
duced power enough to start the wheels of eternity moving 
in many a life and surrounding church, while a great, big, 
pretentious church building nearby, open on Sunday and 
once or twice during the week for about an hour and a 
half at a time, was not able to produce any power. The 
cab of that big church was empty while that of the little 
unpretentious church nearby was properly manned. That 
counts, and not the size of the church. 

Fuel Counts—There was fuel on both the big engine and 
the little one; but while the former was not using its fuel, 
the latter was using what it had to good advantage, and it 
is just this wise use of fuel, rather than the size of the 
engine, which counted. A big church has the Word of 
God and the ministry of the Spirit at its disposal, but per- 


BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 75 


haps does not use them, while a much smaller church 
nearby uses the Spirit of truth for every good purpose of 
instruction and fraternal ministry. That counts, and not 
the size of the church, 

The contribution to the Kingdom made by the small 
churches has been tremendous and cannot be overlooked. 
Inadequate and poverty-stricken as many of them are, yet 
many of them have produced a wealth of ministerial tim- 
ber and of missionary workers far beyond that produced 
by many of the larger and better equipped churches. They 
contain, today, sources of men and money beyond the ex- 
pectation of many. In fact, the small churches constitute 
the bulk of our future prospects and powers. They do 
need, however, equipment in the way of buildings suitable 
for educational and social work. They need help in the sci- 
entific survey of the community they serve, for only upon 
the basis of facts can a proper plan and program be de- 
vised for the many types of local church work demanded. 
But in a well-studied plan and a properly-devised program 
lies a large share of the hope for future success. 

The New Member—tThe future holds promise of better 
things because much more care is now being given to the 
handling of the incoming member. A well trained, par- 
ticipating membership justifies the continuance of any 
church. Scripture gives no details of the method of se- 
curing an adequate confession from a newborn soul, nor 
does the Word of God give any directions as to how an 
incoming member shall be handled. A luminous statement 
is all that is given concerning the confession and profes- 
sion of the converted on the day of Pentecost and in the 
days that followed. “And there was added unto them 
daily, such as were being saved, and they continued daily,” 
etc. We are not given a hint of what was done, but we 
are told what the results were. Doubtless some members 
fell away later, but it is fairly certain that the loss was 
nowhere near what the average church suffers today. 
Those were days of cross-bearing and the costs of Chris- 


76 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


tianity to its followers were great. It is an arresting fact 
that for many years, out of every hundred converts added 
to the average church membership by profession of faith, 
fifty were sooner or later excluded or erased for cause. — 
An appalling loss and a terrible indictment of the churches 
for failing to use proper methods with the newcomers in 
order to conserve them. Lately, the cross-bearing side of 
Christianity has been minimized and church membership 
has too often been the cheapest and easiest experience in 
the life of a professor. The future holds great, promise 
of better things, because the churches are demanding that 
newcomers be properly instructed as to their duties and 
privileges by lay leaders and the minister, and that the 
normal expectation of a church-member be clearly defined 
before membership is actually granted. The cross-bearing 
side of Christianity is being emphasized and the costs are 
being met with real and increasing zeal. This trend up- 
ward must be carefully encouraged in the future. 
Assets and Liabilities—Every wise and well-ordered 
business establishment constantly counts up its assets and 
determines its liabilities in order to know just how it 
stands. If its assets are liquid and greater than its liabili- 
ties, it is in good condition, but if its liabilities are press- 
ing and large and cannot be met by the assets in hand, 
then the condition of the concern is grave. Why not 
apply the same method of accounting to a religious body 
such as the local church? Of course, it is realized that if 
the accounting is done honestly and without fear of any- 
body, on many sides there will be charges made of all 
sorts of high crimes and misdemeanors. Nevertheless, the 
disposition in many churches is to meet the issue and begin 
to do a thorough piece of work. This augurs well for 
the future, 

It is commonly reported that the local churches enroll 
a membership of many millions. It is true that the church 
rolls contain that number of names, but the local churches 
and many of the denominations cannot honestly, under — 


BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 77 


present conditions, count upon much more than half that 
number to do or to give in a way to make the churches 
useful and productive. In other words, half the assets 
are not really assets at all, and when closely examined, 
must be classed as liabilities. One of two things ought to 
be done with this non-participating part of our enrol- 
ment. They should be enlisted, or, after proper spiritual 
processes have been carried out, in love and honor, their 
false relationship should be severed. Experience proves 
that a large part of these non-participating liabilities can 
be turned into assets, if the participating members will 
meet an adequate cost in loving, personal ministries to 
those who need their help. | 
Our Christian Duty—Many pious phrases will be used 
when this has been read. All the flimsy excuses and the 
—evasions of truth that help the fearful and the prideful to 
avoid doing their Christian duty will be repeated. The 
smug contentment that absorbs the energies of the “ let 
well enough alone ” crowd will come into evidence again. 
But some are on fire with a realization of the grave situ- 
ation that confronts a half-dead church, and those earnest 
souls want everyone else to be similarly fired up to realize 
the present state of affairs. The duty in the matter is 
plain, and it is certain that in the future a loving and 
fearless fulfillment of duty will bring strength, not weak- 
ness, to the whole body of local churches. 

Proof Needed—A church-member should be a member 
in more than name. No one is so foolishly idealistic as to 
expect perfection here and now, but there are some ele- 
mentary signs of spiritual life that are evidence of an at- 
tempt to witness before the world that the life belongs to 
God through faith in Jesus Christ. The local church 
should help every member to produce such evidences, nay, 
in all honor, it should insist that in some measure they be 
produced. It will not do to insist in theory and not in 
practice. No one believes in the thumb-screw or any other 
form of force, for all firmly believe in that splendid old 


78 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


doctrine of voluntarism. However, it is wise to insist 
that when voluntary association has been sought with a 
church, the individual shall produce at least some of the 
fruits of that voluntary association. The local churches 
should no longer allow hundreds of thousands of people 
either to openly impugn their own intelligence and that 
of the organization, or else disclose the falsity of their 
claims as Christians, thus revealing the rest of us as 
false to God, to ourselves and to our fellowship. In 
the future we must justify God’s love and our own 
witnessing love. 

Many church leaders are greatly burdened by the con- 
ditions that confront the institution, and this is written 
with a heart full of love for all the membership in the 
hope that many will undertake a real effort to help every 
individual enrolled in the membership of any local church. 
Such an effort born of a revived brotherly love and em- 
powered by the spirit of God and energized by prayer and 
personal ministry, will change tens of thousands of liabili- 
ties or frozen assets into realizable productive assets for 
the glory of our Lord and Master. 

A Required Standard—lIt is necessary, in order to safe- 
guard the future, to set up spiritual standards and re- 
inforce them by educational processes. A_ successful 
future for the church must be built with painstaking care; 
it will not grow unaided. Trained lay leadership can help 
largely to solve the problem, and more and more the min- 
ister will become a leader and teacher, training his people 
to do the work of the church. The future of any church 
rests largely upon the utilization of its personnel in the 
accomplishment of a well-rounded program that will pro- 
duce a spiritually-minded church membership. Idleness 
never helped a soul to grow. Use makes for larger power 
and a wider horizon. 

Money Again—In the building of a bigger and better 
future, it is necessary to confront another phase of the 
conditions that prevail in the average local church. The 


stm 


BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 79 


place of money in the building of the future church is 
treated in a separate chapter, but to round out this phase 
of the presentation, it needs to be said that the church of 
the future must be strong because it will be properly 
financed through spiritual giving and that every member 
will support the local church and its world enterprise “as 
God has prospered him.” “An idle dream,” some will 
say, but they will be wrong. A larger and more far- 
reaching salvation for the individual and for the local 
church itself depends upon an adequately financed in- 
stitution in which every member participates as a good 
steward. 

Two Old Methods—tThe final word concerning the pro- 
gram of the future Church must relate to its prayer life 
and personal ministries. ‘Those two methods are the cen- 
tral ideas in the plan of the early Church, and comprehend 
the highest type of enduring evangelism. Nothing has 
ever taken the place of prayer in the development of spir- 
ituality in the individual, or in the Church as a whole. 
Prayer is no idle gesture, it is a costly process of self- 
surrender and self-giving. It is God’s way and it must 
be the way of His children. By personal ministries is 
meant the house-to-house call, with a definite object in 
view and a prayerful spirit behind and in all the visit. 
This is a laborious task, but it pays God’s wages for every 
effort put into it. It helps to produce love and watchcare 
among the members, it increases the sense of oneness and 
it leads the membership to know each other and to help 
each other in Christian service, 

What Shall Be Done?—We have now come to the place 
where we want finally to discuss what should be done in 
the face of our present conditions. The facts have 
been faced. 

The first thing to be done is to admit the truth that we 
are not really attempting to meet the call of our Lord and 
Master and do the biggest and best possible piece of work 
for Him in our world of today. The churches must cease 


80 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


excusing failure and set out to cure weakness by admitting 
its existence. 

Once that admission is humbly made, the query will 
arise as to what can be done to change the present con- 
ditions wherever failure is indicated in the life of the | 
church. Here is where the temptation will come to pass 
around the blame from one to another inside and outside 
the church. When something has gone wrong with a 
member of a household and the services of the doctor are 
urgently sought, the medical man does not leave his patient 
to bleed to death while he fixes the blame for the accident. 
It is his immediate duty to care for the patient. 

Let us care for the needs of the local church and cease 
trying to shift the blame from the pastor to the officers, 
then to the finance committee, and from the finance com- 
mittee of the local church it is placed upon the national 
organizations, and from there, some will place the blame 
upon the outside world. With the actual facts in our 
possession, let the blame rest in each local church. ‘The 
members who really love God in spirit and in truth will 
then humbly seek a closer walk with God. First of all, 
they must store up power through prayer and the study 
of the Word. Then must come an exchange of personal 
visits, and prayer should be a part of each visit that is 
made. “But that is so commonplace people won’t ”— 
Don’t say it—just do it with the full assurance that where 
two or three are gathered together, there God is. 

Commonplace, time-worn, and simple as this union of 
prayer with loving ministry is admitted to be, it is God’s 
way of winning people and of helping them. 

Great sermons are fine when a prayerful love of people 
is in the heart of the preacher. A well-organized church 
is a wonderful help provided the people who project 
and carry out the plans are prayerful and folk-loving 
Christians ; otherwise the great organization will produce 
nothing worth while. The future must teach the average 
church that physical equipment such as buildings and ap- 


BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 81 


pliances are the last things needed. They are helpful 
when the members are inclined to personal ministries and 
constant participation, but when the chief objects of pride 
in the life of a church are its edifice and its equipment, 
and the people are cold and indifferent, those members 
have wasted the Lord’s substance in riotous living. 
Leading men and women in the officialdom of the 
church are a great help, provided they know the secret 
place of prayer, and love their fellow Christians enough 
to give them personal ministry, and not pauperize them 
by assuming the part that belongs to others. 
Lack of Love—The weakness in the local church lies in 
our failure to love one another for Christ’s sake. The 
worst enemy any church has is within, not without its 
walls. When we love each other enough to pray for and 
minister to each other, once again, as in the days of the 
Apostles, we shall have the world about us saying, ‘“ How 
those Christians love one another.’ No member could 
then be forgotten or forsaken. Absence would be noticed 
_and the absent followed up. Like and dislike would be 
forgotten. Non-participation, ignorance, non-residence, 
could not become a habit because love would soon per- 
ceive the danger and remove it. Churches would not 
remove from foreign-speaking neighborhoods ; they would 
remain to serve and to grow sacrificially, 
Three Great Things—A _ sin-cursed world about us 
would be a real cause of sorrow and lead to a fulfillment 
of Christ’s plan to save a world because the church loved 
all men for Christ’s sake. Knowledge of the Lord Jesus 
Christ! Yes, knowledge and love! Knowledge, love and 
prayer! Let us no longer lack those three things in the 
life of the church. Buildings, organization, numbers, ora- 
tory, and all else could give place to this knowledge, love 
and prayer. When these three rule, they make a place 
for every needed thing. When brotherly love and prayer 
really take their right place in the plans and thoughts 
because the members know God, they will stop passing the 


82 THE LOCAL CHURCH 


buck and begin instead to pass the bread of life to each 
other and to a lost world, and it will be a joy to pay their 
part of the great price. 

The local church of the future will build deep and 

strong in proportion as prayer and personal ministry 
occupy the lives of the membership. 
The Motive Behind It All—The future life of the 
average church will concern itself to a large extent with 
the motive behind what it counts as progress and success. 
To build up a crowd at the expense of Christian principles 
should not enhance the reputation of any preacher or add 
to the value of any organization. To bring people into 
Kingdom purposes and powers will, in the future, be 
counted as success even if it adds no one to the list of 
members. In the last analysis, the main objective is the 
Kingdom of God, and any local organization may well 
spend itself and, if necessary, pass out of existence, pro- 
vided its Kingdom task has been well done. All over the 
land there are examples of such local church history. 

God does not expect a perfect performance from His 
children, but He does expect a high and loving “ purpose 
to perform.” With this end in view, He planned the 
divine institution called the Church, and it was launched 
with a simple organization to help its membership per- 
form together the services needed to win a world. The 
future must be marked by simplicity of organization lest 
the spirit of personal service be lost in the mazes of 
machinery. Ministry is always more valuable than 
machinery. 

A Program—To converge this whole discussion in a 
program for the future, it is suggested that: 

1. Each church make a thorough survey of its own life 
and organization. 

2. The community and its life around the church be 
studied. 

3. A definite plan of work and program of activities 
be. made each year. 


BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 83 


4. Much greater care shall be exercised before new 
members are admitted. 

5. A minimum standard of worship, service and giving 
be set up and lovingly maintained for all members, based 
upon a definite educational basis preceding and following 
regeneration. 

6. The work of the minister be studied by each church 
and a program established for him which will include in 
his work the training of all lay officers to enable them to 
produce a worshipping, working and giving membership. 
The minister’s chief task shall be to maintain a spiritual 
message and ministry. 

7. The church shall finance its work upon a maximum 
basis by making a budget based upon the work to be done, 
the needs of the local and world situation, and the pros- 
perity of its members. 

An Every Member Plan shall be used to enlist the mem- 
bers, with the understanding that there shall be only two 
classes: those contributing to the support of the church 
and its missionary program, and those receiving charitable 
‘aid from the church because they are too poor to give. 

8. The church, in the exercise of its brotherly love, 
shall, after prayer, by means of personal lay ministries, 
aim to keep in close touch with every member on the 
church roll. Where members exhibit an utter lack of 
fellowship, a loving disciplinary practice shall be used to 
help them in accordance with the New Testament plan. 

9. That the church shall minister to the poor, the 
afflicted, and the foreign-speaking people in its neigh- 
borhood. 

Experience has proven that when such processes and 
plans as these are utilized the local churches justify their 
continuance and are worth maintaining. Their members 
are spiritual, the world is their parish, they love one an- 
other and they give joyfully and generously without 
expectation of return in kind, because the Person of Christ 
is the great Dynamic of their hopes and lives. 


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APPENDIX 
QuEsTIONS RELATING To EACH CHAPTER 


CHAPTER I—JUSTIFYING CONTINUANCE 


What question is asked as the reason for writing the 
book? 


. Name the qualities and powers that would seem to justify 


the continuance of any local church. 


. Give a definition of spirituality. 

. Why go to church? 

. Give an illustration of Christian love and fellowship. 

. Give the arguments pro and con for justifying the con- 


tinuance of a local church. 


. How does the local church help the member to cooperate 


more worthily with God? 


. Contrast some material elements with the spiritual ele- 


ments in determining the value of a local church. | 


CHAPTER II—THE STRENGTH OF A CHURCH 


. Of whom is the Church Universal composed? Contrast 


it with the local church. 


. Discuss the chief element in the strength of the Church 


Universal. 


. What factors do thoughtful church-members properly — 


count as constituting a successful church? 


.In what way does a church differ from all other 


organizations? 


. Give two illustrations of the work done by a spiritually- 


minded church membership. 


. Give four or more of the elements that contribute to the 


strength of a local church. 


. What process should follow an evangelistic effort? 
. State the relationship that should exist between a church- 


member and cross-bearing. 
84 


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APPENDIX 85 
CHAPTER III—THE WEAKNESS OF A CHURCH 


. Discuss the relation of the disciple to discipline. 
. State some of the effects of ignorance upon the members 


of a local church. 


. What relation has giving to missionary work? 
. Name some “ fruits of the spirit” that should be evidenced 


in the lives of church-members. 


. What portion of an average church membership partici- 


pates in the three essential spiritual functions? 


. Name the purposes of a women’s department in the local 


church. 


. How much blame for the weakness of many churches can 


reasonably be laid at the door of the lay officer? 


. Give five or more reasons for weakness in a local church. 


CHAPTER IV—THE MINISTER 


. Discuss the need for clinical preparation of ministers. 
. What is the prime responsibility of a minister? 
. Name the five things that should be characteristic of a 


minister’s task. 


. Should the minister do all the work of the church? Dis- 


cuss the reasons for your answer. 


. Discuss the need for a professional consciousness and 


standard in the ministry. 


. What is said about the accountability of a minister? 
. How does financial dependence hamper the work of a 


preacher ? 


. Why does a local church need a well-trained minister? 


CHAPTER V—ITS FINANCES 


. Discuss the relation between salvation and money. 


2. What does a lack of money in the church treasury really 


reveal? 


. Make up a sample church budget. 
. Describe the Every Member Plan from its start to its 


completion. 


. What should be the relation of a women’s organization to 


the raising of church money? Give the reasons for your 
answer. 


. Why is group giving objected to? 


86 


9. 


THE LOCAL CHURCH 


. Should women have a place on the major finance group 


of the church? Why? 


. Discuss week-by-week giving and monthly distribution of 


receipts. 
What is the average standard of giving? 


CHAPTER VI—THE OBJECTIVES OF ITS PROGRAM 


ty 


2. 


3. 


What is the first and most serious concern of any local 
church? Why? 

Who is responsible for filling the pews? Discuss the 
reasons for your answer. 

Describe a group plan. 


. What percentage of its possibilities does the average local 


church utilize? Of what do those possibilities consist? 


. Cite an example of the result of changed activities on the 


part of a women’s organization. 


. Discuss the lesson conveyed by the illustration of the 


orchards. 


. What results from a failure to cultivate church-members ? 
. Discuss the reasons why money is so constantly mentioned 


in this study. 


CHAPTER VII—BUILDING THE FUTURE PROGRAM 


Nn om Se DW 


CON! 


. Wherein lies the importance of the rural or village 


church? 


. Give the illustration “‘ Not size that counts.” Make its 


application, 


. In the future program what place belongs to the new 


member? Why? 


. Discuss assets and liabilities in connection with church- 


4 


members. 


. What is said about idleness and the utilization of church- 


members? 


. Name two old methods of the early church and apply them 


to the future program of the church of today. 


. What shall be done in the face of present conditions? 
. Give as fully as possible the nine points mentioned in a 


program for the future. 


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